CYRIL ANEKSTEIN CUP SEMI-FINAL
HENDON UNITED SPORTS CLUB A 0 OAKWOOD A 5
Dan Kristall praised his Oakwood A players for the perfect performances as they Oakwood marched into the final of the Cyril Anekstein Cup as they blew Hendon away with a ruthless performance at Hadley FC.
Hendon went into the tie with a psychological edge having taken four points out of a possible six in their two league meetings with Hendon, but once the second goal went in there was only going to be one winner.
CUP SEMI-FINAL VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS - HENDON A vs OAKWOOD A
CUP SEMI-FINAL PHOTOGALLERY - HENDON A vs OAKWOOD A
CUP SEMI-FINAL PHOTOGALLERY - FC TEAM A vs NL RAIDERS A
The hosts had the first opening when Oakwood keeper Jonny Blain fumbled a cross, but Ari Last failed to connect properly with an overhead kick and the visitors cleared their lines before Dovi Fehler fired wide minutes later.
CANTOR, who had been booked for a late tackle after only five minutes, opened the scoring with a low drive just after the 30-minute mark, latching on to an excellent ball over the top by Brad Wine.
Blain was then called into action, producing a full-length save to keep out a sweetly struck effort from Zac Lewis.
SIMON DAVIES doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time following an excellent move involving Dave Woolman and Wine whose excellent pull-back was rifled high into the Hendon net past Russell Corin.
With the next goal crucial, it was CANTOR who delivered the killer blow. His corner came back to him and his dangerous cross-shot curled straight into the net.
There was no way back for Hendon as Oakwood defended superbly and won the all-important midfield battle, and further strikes from super-sub DAN SELWYN, who replaced the injured Cantor, and the impressive BRAD WINE, capitalising on a rare slip from Alex Rosenthal, booked Oakwood's place in the final.
Joint-manager Dan Kristall told JC Sport: "What a day that was and the cameras were there to capture it. An outstanding display against a full-strength Hendon side. Our first victory over them and their first defeat at Hadley for three years.
"Having played so well against Hendon in the previous league meeting, where we were very unlucky to only come away with a draw that day, we were even more determined to put that right. It was a game where the first goal was always going to be key. Added to that, the goal just before half-time which was certainly our best 'team goal of the season'. The build-up play and the finish was superb.
"We expected a second-half bombardment from Hendon, especially given their quarter-final heroics against Redbridge but it never came and the third goal certainly knocked the stuffing out of them. I genuinely think they were shocked at the manner in which we over-powered them all over the park.
"We look forward to a showpiece final against Raiders, where the best two defences will go head-to-head. We feel that we have a point to prove that day against, having taken them to within a minute of winning our league meeting a few weeks ago.
"If we hit the heights of Sunday’s performance, I really don’t see anybody getting close to us. Our focus now shifts back to the league where we face a tough FC Team in a fortnight.
"Good luck Hendon in the rest of the league season. I am sure David will rally his troops and we may even meet them in the Morrison later in the season. I am sure they will bounce back as they have too many good players not to."
Oakwood's 5-0 mauling means they will take on cup holders North London Raiders A in the final at Wingate & Finchley on April 17.
Joint-manager Ric Blank told JC Sport: "It was an unbelievable result, it went as well as it could go. To beat a team like Hendon 5-0 is absolutely unbelievable. We’re buzzing. We were fantastic.
"To beat Hendon in that manner on their own pitch was absolutely tremendous and was one of the best performances I’ve ever been involved in."
Hendon manager David Garbacz told JC Sport: "Without wishing to take any of the credit away from Oakwood this was undoubtedly the worst Hendon performance in many a year. Coming as it did in a semi-final that we had fought so heroically to be playing in made it even more disappointing.
"Goals one and three were crucial and they both came from two terrible defensive errors. The first goal was always going to be massive with patience the key in a game like this and for 30 minutes the match was totally even.
"They scored a well-worked second just before half time but even at the break we fancied ourselves to come back into it. Goal three though was a total killer and after that we then went on to gift them two more as we failed to launch any sort of comeback and simply allowed ourselves to be out fought and dominated throughout the second half.
"Our forwards had nothing to feed on and we simply could not get the ball out of our half to create any chances which was a combination of their excellence and our poor play.
"Saying all that, Oakwood were superb overall and after going ahead never looked back and totally deserved their success. They pressed us and harried us into mistakes and broke up play very cleverly with a series of fouls whenever we did look like breaking out. They were strong and played as a unit and tactically got it spot on as well.
"Everyone connected to Hendon needs to shoulder some responsibility - perhaps this type of defeat against a team like this was inevitable as the likes of strong leaders such as Josh Lipman and The Bentleys and Motti Colman have left over the years - we really could have done with some of their competitiveness today.
"It will be difficult but we will need to pick ourselves up quickly and try to go again this season - the year is still far from over and we owe it to ourselves to see out the season well and to keep these type of days to a minimum. We are still in the Morrison and obviously that now is our main priority.
"I really hope Oakwood go on to win the final - they totally deserve a trophy after coming so close in recent years - plus in doing so they will stop Raiders winning the treble which no one wants to see!"
