PETER MORRISON TROPHY SEMI-FINAL
NORTH LONDON RAIDERS C 1 HENDON UNITED SPORTS CLUB A 5
David Garbacz insists Hendon United are determined to prove their critics wrong after they eased into the final of the Peter Morrison Trophy for the third year in a row after crushing North London Raiders C at Ark Academy.
Strikes from top-scorer Dovi Fehler, Yoav Kestenbaum, Ari Last, Avi Korman and Ben Kon ensured the holders booked their place in the May 8 final at Wingate. They will meet the winners of Wednesday night's last four clash between Lions and Raiders at Rowley Lane.
Hendon boss David Garbacz told JC Sport: "This was always going to be a match where it would be hard to reach the heights of the last round against Redbridge.
"We played well overall but we did miss a host of chances and were possibly too open for my liking in the last 20 minutes.
"Raiders were exceptionally well-organised and I thought did really well, showed great commitment and deserved their goal at the end. They played far better than their league position would suggest and for a while were hard to break down.
"Once we got the first though there was only ever going to be one winner and we topped off our win with some nice goals in the second half, plus a funny Ronnie Rosenthal moment from Yoav Kestenbaum. Thankfully we were 4-0 up at the time.
"We are thrilled to be in the final for the third consecutive year and we will be going for our third consecutive win in a few weeks time.
"We know that whoever we play we will be underdogs but with our full-strength squad available we can beat anyone.
"It should be a great occasion and I'll be making sure the boys don't eat too many matzahs in the coming weeks so we go into the match at full fitness.
"It means a lot to us that we have reached this cup final after our indifferent league campaign.
"We feel as if we have had something to prove in the cups and if we come away with a victory next month, we will have proved wrong all those who wrote us off a bit early this season."
NLR's David Domb was delighted with the home side's first-half performance. He told JC Sport: "For 45 minutes I'm pretty sure that Hendon side were stunned. We were disciplined, well-organised and looked pretty good on the break but just couldn't find the final ball. We were unlucky to go in a goal down - the fact is Hendon were in a game I'm sure they weren't expecting.
"But there was always the danger a couple of quick goals could kill us off and that happened early in the second half. But we kept fighting and plugging away, and we really did ourselves proud.
"Our run in the competition has been memorable. For a team from Division Two to reach the last four is a superb achievement. It's a great team that beat us, even if by their own standards they've fallen below expectations in the league.
"But there's still a chance for a Raiders team to be in the final and there'll be a C-team following at Rowley to cheer the As to Wingate. Best of luck to Rob and Jonny.
"For us it's back to the league. Plenty of points to play four and a top three finish to achieve."
