Robin Hood 3

Flanagan’s Onions 2

Robin Hood squeaked into the semi-finals of the Friendship Trophy with a nervy win over Flanagan’s Onions at Goose Gosling Field yesterday.

Seemingly cruising having taken a three-nil lead with only half an hour gone, Hood then nearly threw it all away. Goals from Nathan Peskett and Vincent Minors put Onions on the verge of a dramatic comeback, and Hood could have had few complaints if they had ended up on the losing side.

“It was closer than it needed to be,” Kyle Lightboure, the Hood coach, said.

“I saw that after we scored our third goal we just said ‘yeah the game’s won’, but not with Onions.

“We’ve been through that before, and it’s disappointing that we couldn’t finish that game comfortably,

“It was very disappointing in the second half, especially as we talked about it at half-time. But, it’s a cup game, we got through to the next round and just go from there.”

Onions, meanwhile, will be kicking themselves for gifting Hood a three-goal lead, all of which came through defensive lapses in a first half performance that was uncharacteristically disjointed.

Antwan Russell and Tevahn Tyrell, the Hood strikers, made the most of the space they were allowed to play in, and Tyrell might have scored twice before Russell finally broke the deadlock.

The pair played a nice one-two on the edge of the box, and Russell gave Stephen Gould, the Onions goalkeeper, no chance with a shot in to the bottom corner.

Two goals in the space of two minutes from Russell, and then Tyrell, who reacted quickest when Gould could only parry a weak effort from Marcelos Thomas, should have ended the game as a contest. Especially against an Onions side who were second to everything and were too often caught ball-watching.

Onions however are not a side to go without a fight, and the introduction of Peskett at half-time changed the game, giving them some much-needed impetus in midfield. Peskett’s thumping header from a hotly disputed free kick, and Minors’s rifled shot moments later.

Ultimately Onions lost because they gave Hood a three-goal head start, and could not take their chances when they came. Minors and Keston Lewis both missed open goals before Peskett’s goal, and Lewis and Greg Muir then both squandered good opportunities.