Dan Kristall insists Oakwood were good value for their win over Los Camden as the holders set up a repeat of the 2018 Cyril Anekstein Cup final, with a mouth-watering clash against Hendon United Sports secured on April 14.
March 19, 2019 11:20
CYRIL ANEKSTEIN CUP SEMI-FINAL
OAKWOOD A 2 LOS CAMDEN A 0
First-half strikes from Toby Levy and Josh Cuby guided holders Oakwood A into another final after they saw off a determined effort from Los Camden at the Ark in Wembley.
Kristall told JC Sport: "We fully respected Los Camden, who arrived at the Ark fired up and ready for it. They certainly have lots of quality but I felt that other than the first 10 minutes, we completely controlled the game."
Oakwood forged ahead when Josh Cuby broke clear, only to be upended by Camden goalkeeper Steve Murad, leaving referee little option but to point to the spot. Cuby has missed a couple of spot-kicks, so up stepped Levy to power his penalty past Murad.
And it was Cuby who put daylight between the teams on the stroke of half-time, capitalising on a defensive error to stroke the ball nonchelantly past Murad with the outside of his foot.
Camden huffed and puffed in the second half, but Oakwood defended resolutely to ensure there was no way back.
Kristall told JC Sport: "A great win and another cup final, our third in four years which shows that as a club, we are consistently in the mix for silverware. This has not been a great season on the league front. We have struggled for a big enough squad and had some inconsistent results but we seem to have a knack of getting a result when we need it.
"It always helps when you score at key times and when Cuby capitalised on their error in the last minute of the first half, we never looked back.
"We used our bench and changed to a more solid shape in the second half to see the game out and its always pleasing to keep a clean sheet."
Camden boss Stirling Kay told JC Sport: "'Today was a tough one to take - both keepers didn't have to make a save in a very low-quality affair but ultimately we conceded two very soft goals and lost the game and were made to pay because of this."
Kay went on to question Jaye's penalty call, and said: "In the manner of the game whoever went behind first was going to find it difficult to get back into the game and the penalty killed the game off. The decision is difficult to take upon seeing the replay. I think one could debate if it was a foul as Moo got to the ball first, but all contact looked outside the area. I would have hoped that one of the officials could have helped the referee out, but the assistant was struggling to keep up with the pace of this play.
"Even so, we weren't good enough to break Oakwood down today and were poor at both ends of the pitch and Oakwood took advantage of this, Credit to Oakwood, they were the better team on the day and deservedly go through. We wish them luck in the final and hope they have a special day at Wingate."
Looking ahead to the final, Kristall added: "As for advancing to play Hendon, we know how tough this will be. We have both beaten each other in the league this season and we narrowly and harshly missed out in the third league meeting. They're an excellent side full of quality from back to front.
"Jordan [Sapler] mentioned in his match preview to Hendon's semi-final that their main threat this season has been HMH and Lions... In which case, we're just happy to make up the numbers at Wingate!
"As our title race is over, we will now use our league games as preparation. Everyone has a chance to fight for cup final places and we will use the squad to try different things out."
Co-boss Dave Cohen added: "We always turn up in the final and will arrive for that game super-confident."