The Yachtsmen won the Isle of Wight Senior (Gold) cup for a lucky 13th time at Beatrice Avenue last night (Friday) by beating Port on penalties.
The game began with the Wessex Premier side in the ascendancy. In the 4th minute, a long throw from Scott McFarlane was met by the head of McKie before being palmed past the post by Pitman.
In the 13th minute, Port keeper Pitman was equal to a Fin Phillips volley, which he parried away from danger.
In the 20th minute, Jimmy Mumford had a strong run stopped by Pitman. 5 minutes later, John McKie found himself through but was ruled offside.
The Yachtsmen suffered a blow at around the half hour mark when midfield dynamo Brandon Hayward was forced off the pitch with a suspected broken foot to be replaced by Caleb Neale.
In the 33rd minute – against the run of play – a defensive error allowed the ball to fall to the feet of Joe Butcher, who coolly dispatched the ball past Pitman into the net from the middle of the penalty area to give the Port a goal advantage (0-1).
The County Town club were now on the front foot with Joe Craig having a close-range shot saved by Cowes keeper Hatt 5 minutes before the half time break
Half time: Cowes Sports 0-1 Newport IoW
The fortunes of the game changed on the hour mark when that man – Cowes captain John McKie – sent a spectacular overhead kick into the back of the Newport net from the edge of the 6-yard box (1-1).
There then followed a 5-minute delay caused by an accidental clash of heads between Cowes defender Conor White and powerful midfielder Scott McFarlane. White finished the game with his forehead strapped and McFarlane was forced to leave the pitch with a nosebleed to be replaced by the combative Harri Catania.
The County Town club then threw on 3 of their more creative players: Ji Nash, Josh Younie and Jordan Chapman.
Port applied plenty of pressure in the closing stages of the game: a Connor Kelly cross to Ji Nash was stopped by Hatt at the far post; Jordan Browne had a shot blocked on the goal line.
Connor Kelly struck the ball just past the upright in the 6th minute of injury time. The final scoring opportunity of the game fell to Ji Nash, who blasted the ball at Ed Hatt.
Full time: Cowes Sports 1-1 Newport IoW
And so to penalties …
Port’s dead ball specialist Josh Younie saw his spot kick bounce off the crossbar. Cowes defender Jake Watson had his penalty saved by Pitman. Connor Kelly missed the goal completely.
It fell to substitute Eli Ahmed to take the Yachtsmen’s final spot kick, which he coolly placed past Pitman.
Penalties: Cowes Sports 4-3 Newport IoW
Cowes Sports: Hatt, White, Dempsey, Watson, O.West, McFarlane, Phillips, Hayward, Conway, McKie (c), Mumford. Subs: Neale, Ahmed, Catania, Whittle, Coode.
Newport: Pitman, Hughes, Triggs, Colson, Oatley (c), Barron, Kelly, Boyd-Kerr, Browne, Craig, Butcher Subs: Nash, Younie, Chapman, Malin, McCormack.
Man-of-the-match: Harrison Dempsey (Cowes Sports)
Attendance: 525
After the game, Newport manager Steve Brougham regretted that the game had gone straight to penalties, believing that extra time would have been a more appropriate method of settling the tie. Probably, most in the 500+ crowd would have agreed – especially those sporting yellow and blue scarves.
Cowes captain and goal scorer John McKie said:
“We got what we deserved. We’ve worked hard all season, maintained our status as the premier club on the island and added the gold cup to that.
“Over the 90 minutes it was the right result, and only cemented our position as the no.1 team on the Island.”
