ByJeremy Silverstone, Jeremy Silverstone
This year’s Maccabi Masters Cup final will be contested by North London Raiders and Waldaf Town on May 10 at Wingate & Finchley FC after both sides came through their respective semi-finals.
Newly-crowned league champions North London Raiders will be seeking a league and cup double after they beat Chigwell 5-1 to reach the final, courtesy of goals from Danny Daggers, Wayne Davidson, Jon Isaacs and Adam Levene (2). Paul Gold scored Chigwell’s consolation.
First-half goals from Jerry Leigh and Alex Bourne were enough to ensure that Waldaf saw off the challenge from second division Zigzag Marshside, and despite Faramarz Moghim converting a penalty for Marshside after the break, Waldaf held on to secure their place at this season’s showcase event.
And with Maccabi London Lions already confirmed as one of the finalists in the Nathan Horwitz MMFL Division 2 Cup Final at Wingate on May 12, all that remained was to decide their opponents.
Dean Ingram put Fortune ahead with a superb free-kick on 21 minutes. Glenthorne rallied and levelled two minutes from time, before sealing the tie with two injury-time strikes. Darren Leventhal, Micky Nathan and Paul van Gelder registered for the Thornes.
Fortune player-manager Howard Wallis, who had to take over in goal from injured keeper Serge Weinberger late on, said: "We did not deserve to lose, especially 3-1. Everyone showed heart and soul and gave everything and we can be satisfied that we can hold our heads up high.
"In fact a very full-strength Glenthorne, with all of the big guns playing, were a little embarrassed at the final whistle."
In the Maccabi Masters League Division 1, honours were even as Faithfold and Brady A shared the points in their 2-2 draw, with Andrew Souber and Boris Simons scoring for Faithfold, and Dean Schulberg and Adam Gishen netting for Brady.