PETER MORRISON TROPHY LAST 16
Brady Maccabi A 2 Temple Fortune A 1
Brady kept alive their hopes of a cup double with a hard fought win over first division Temple Fortune A at the Hive, courtesy of two headers from star man Paul Hakim.
The hosts scored twice in the last 25 minutes with a solitary effort from Jon Fisher proving too little, too late for Fortune.
Fortune battled hard for the entirity of the cup tie and were a shade unfortunate not to take the match into extra time. They matched their higher-ranked opponents throughout but lacked any real cutting edge upfront.
Goalless at half-time, Brady took the lead after 65 minutes with Dan Natoff off the field changing his boots. The 10 men failed to deal with a cross from the right which was headed home by the Brady centre-forward.
Soon afterwards, Michael Goldberg was so close to equalising when he broke through – his first effort was parried by the goalkeeper and from the rebound, Goldberg clipped the crossbar from an angle.
However, the home side broke away on 75 minutes and another cross was nodded towards Steve Murad by the same Brady forward; somehow the ball crept under the hapless Fortune goalkeeper to make it 2-0.
But the Yellows still gave their all and deservedly pulled one back with eight minutes remaining. Dave Gance was tripped just outside the penalty area and with Brady lining up their defensive wall, the quick-thinking Fisher fired the ball into the opposing net for a controversial goal. Referee Laurence Thorne awarded the goal much to Brady's anger, but Fortune couldn't grab an unlikely equaliser in the tense closing minutes.
Brady boss Josh Rosenfeld told JC Sport: "Today was one of those typical cup games. We started very slowly and didn’t look threatening too much; however looked in total control of the game.
"Paul Hakim scored twp great headers and we got the job done.
"Temple Fortune didn’t make it easy for us. They worked hard and gave everything they could. In the end the quality showed and we pushed on."
Fortune manager Lee Fegan commented: "I'm proud of the boys who matched them and battled well throughout. With a bit more luck we may have got something out of the game but I cannot fault the team.
"Despite missing five regulars, everyone who came in played their part to a man and we can take great pride in our run in the Morrison."
