JC CYRIL ANEKSTEIN CUP ROUND TWO
NORTH LONDON RAIDERS C 3 CATFORD & BROMLEY MACCABI 4

The Cats won a seven-goal thriller at Norsemen FC thanks to doubles from Joel Isaacs and Joel Berwitz.

They marched into a 4-1 lead before the Raiders set up a grandstand finish but the Cats held on.

Raiders' goals came through Ben Hart, Matt Keston and an own goal.

Catford joint-manager Adam Lewis told JC Sport: "We controlled the first half after going 1-0 after a minute to a comical own goal and scored three goals from set pieces. Unfortunately we lost Steve Keller to an injury and after that we missed his pace and battling.

"After half time we scored yet another from a set-play, but thereafter NLR really came back at us strongly. They scored two good goals and probably deserved more, but a superb point blank save from Guy Ben Aroya kept us in the lead. After that we steadied ourselves slightly and Joel Berwitz squandered a late chance for a hat trick.

"One of the pleasing things for us was the fact we scored four from set pieces as other teams have done that to us this season. In the first half I felt we passed it very well but as soon as we went 4-1 up we really lost our shape so we know we'll have to do better if we're to win the majority of our games this season.

"We'd like to wish NLRC all the best for the rest of the season. They're a good team and a nice bunch as well."

Raiders boss Oli Shorts told JC Sport: "Things got off to a perfect start, going ahead inside a minute but for all our good play in the first half we just couldn't defend from set-pieces.

"We conceded three stupid goals that would only happen in Sunday League football and went into the second half with an uphill struggle.

"Five minutes in it went from bad to worse as we conceded from another set-piece. We only learnt what to do after after conceding four.

"We really dominated possession throughout the 90 minutes but if you can't defend from simple throw-ins and corners then you won't win games like this.

"Credit to my players for putting in a really good fight so we had a lot of positives to take. We should have gone on to snatch an equaliser but it wasn't to be.

"The most important thing for Rich and I is to win our league game against Jewventus and to be out of the cup just means we can concentrate on winning our league games."