CYRIL ANEKSTEIN CUP QUARTER-FINAL
LOS BLANCOS 3 CAMDEN PARK 0
More drama was added to this already tense last eight cup clash with the referee turning up in what has become known as ‘Oli Sade time’, 15 minutes after the scheduled kick-off time.
The game kicked off in tricky conditions with snowfall starting to cover the pitch this led to a cagey opening 15 minutes, Blancos’s tidy football paid dividends an early chance was spurned by Avi Kestenbaum on 20 minutes.
Kestenbaum made up for this collecting a ball on the corner of box, with a trademark faint and drop of the shoulder he glided past his marker and got his shot of wrong-footing the Camden keeper on 30 minutes.
With Danny Sherman's hold-up play starting to influence Camden, they knocked Blancos of their early stride. But Camden’s late control of the first half could not produce the equalising goal and scoreboard read 1-0.
At half-time Camden adopted an all-out attack approach, throwing on the retuning Hershkorn into the fold, their early second-half pressure was resisted by a partnership possessed in Jake Doffman and Gav Krieger, whose joint performances today resembled the Vidic/Ferdinand partnership.
Having weathered the storm, literally, Blancos doubled the lead on the hour with a fine opportunist strike by Sade. He capitalised on poor clearance and with the keeper off his line, Sade produced a 20-yard lob from the corner of the box.
The tie was sealed on 70 minutes when a corner was met by a pinball session in box, until Doffman gathered the ball bullied through his marker and drilled the ball into the top corner past the onrushing keeper.
The remainder of the game saw Blancos soak up heavy Camden pressure but no strikeforce in the world would have found space against this Blancos back four today.
The win gives Blancos a home semi-final against Oakwood. Boss Joel Holder told JC Sport: "The lads put in a strong performance today and every one of my players dug deep and produced a 110 per cent performance.
"There are simply no superlatives that do the Gav Krieger and Jake Doffman's centre-back partnership justice today, and with Jake’s finish we’ll probably see him playing up front next season.
"We're delighted to be in the semis and looking forward to some more magic of the cup."
