PETER MORRISON TROPHY ROUND THREE
BRADY MACCABI 4 NORTH LONDON RAIDERS A 0
Two goals from Paul Hakim plus one apiece from TJ Keterman and Josh Hershman eased Brady past Raiders to reach the last 16 of the Jewish FA Cup.
A cold morning awaited fellow Premier league strugglers Brady and Raiders A at Rowley Lane, in a cup game coming as a welcome distraction from the league.
Brady fielding a very attacking team, complete with star striker Hakim, and new signing Keterman.
Brady started the stronger, passing the ball around very nicely through the midfield, however were dealt an early blow, when Josh Gordon caught a stray elbow after 10 minutes, and had to go off with a broken nose … Steve Bruce eat your heart out.
Jon Green replaced him, and Keterman dropped into the middle of midfield to orchestrate the play. The first half came and went as a bit of a non event, with wingers Josh and Alex Hershman wasting some good chances, whilst Hakim terrorised the Raiders defence with his power and pace.
The second half started with Brady continuing to dominate, and the warning signs were there for Raiders. Brady eventually broke the deadlock, after some neat passing between Keterman, and Hershman resulted into a scramble in the area where Hakim poked in for his first goal of the season.
Brady doubled their lead in quick succession with Green releasing Keterman, who lifted the ball over the onrushing Danny Berliner to mark his debut with a goal.
Hakim scored his second of the season, when Alex Hershman roasted the left back, to whip a ball in, which Hakim slid in at the back door to put Brady home and dry, and into the next round.
There was enough time for keeper Oli Colmans to make two very good saves - one from Jamie Wolfson and a crucial one-on-one save from Igal Yahya - thus allowing last year's golden boy Josh Hershman to be released through on goal to finish off the win for Brady.
Brady boss Josh Rosenfeld told JC Sport: "I thought we played very well and played some excellent football at times. I thought we dominated the game and the scoreline could have been a lot more.
"Raiders are a tough side and we still have two tough encounters with them in the league.
"It's great to win two on the trot now, but our attention turns straight to next week where we need to start picking up some points in the league."
A Raiders spokesman told JC Sport: "The boys were solid for 55 minutes and we had kept things tight, but we knew that given their extra height, Brady would pose a threat from set-pieces and so it proved with the first goal.
"Once that went in, it was always going to be difficult if we fell behind today. Injuries and poor availability are really hurting us and that was the case again today.
Ben Ellis, Matt Stock, Alex Olcot, Carl Peters, Joe Tankel, Andrew McMaster, Ben Sheldon and Mayer Schultz.
He went on to say: "I can't fault the boys for their effort but over the 90 minutes, the best team won."
