TONY COHEN MEMORIAL CUP FINAL
Republic of Mancunia 1st 0 Crumpsall 2

Stuart Delmonte’s guest appearance inspired Crumpsall to a shock victory in the final of the Tony Cohen Memorial Trophy.

The Manchester Maccabi 1st boss was on the sidelines to guide Crumpsall past much fancied Republic of Mancunia 1st at Salford FC.

Benjy Silverman’s strike just after the hour mark gave Noson Feldman’s side the lead, before Frenchie Freedman wrapped the game up four minutes from time.

But it was Delmonte’s contribution which was praised by a delighted Feldman.

“We’re absolutely over the moon,” said Feldman.

“A lot of credit has to go to Stuart for coming down and helping us to organise the team.

“We know him well and we just asked if he’d fancy helping us out and it worked really well.

“But the lads were magnificent and fully deserved the win. From Nef Fagelman in goal through to Michael Pine
and Frenchie, we were great.

“We had Wayne Doyle playing in defence and he’s 52. It was fantastic.”

Republic had hoped to bounce back from last week’s 3-2 defeat in the Shonn Trophy Final after a disappointing first-half performance against Hyde Park.

But they failed to exorcise their demons as Crumpsall picked up a win which will have sent shockwaves through the MJSL.

Silverman’s strike broke the deadlock, before 43-year-old Freedman rolled back the years by firing home from Dan Rose’s pull-back.

“We’ve got one more game to go but the celebrations will go long into the night,” said Feldman.

“It’s a great win and it doesn’t matter that we lose games or let in goals in the league.

“It’s about winning and the whole team was excellent.”

Meanwhile, Republic boss Si Kaye was left to reflect on another cup final defeat although his side's fixture pile-up has hardly helped.

He said: “The boys played worse than they did in the first-half last week but it’s difficult when you’re playing Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday for three weeks.

“I’ve got four out injured, two away and I can’t call up anyone from the second team because they’re cup-tied.

“Then I felt the first goal was offside. The linesman and the fourth official both called it as offside but the referee overruled them both.

“From then on we were chasing the game and they caught us at the end when we were pushing forward.

“But we didn’t deserve to win in the end although we tried our best.”