St George’s 3 Footy Kings 0

Sage Paynter netted twice as St George’s scored three times in the second half to defeat Footy Kings in the FA Cup preliminary round for the second straight season yesterday.

Corona League side Footy Kings, who lost 4-1 to St George’s last season, held their own in their first half at Wellington Oval against opponents who had only scored one goal at home in three matches this season.

They did have the ball in the net in the 21st minute when Paynter met Kyle Denbrook’s cross from a free kick at the far post and steered his shot past goalkeeper Jason Williams. However, the flag was already raised for offside.

Both teams tried to get an early edge during a close first half with Aaron Williams placing the ball past the advancing Mishael Paynter only for Ernest Signor to clear it. Then Ralph Bean, of Footy Kings, followed up on a free kick before driving a shot from 20 yards just over the crossbar.

Footy Kings ran out of steam in the second half against their younger opponents after Paynter broke the deadlock in the 50th minute when he met Jahki Brangman’s cross and tapped in an easy goal at the far post. St George’s got stronger after that with Kyle Denbrook’s inswinging corner hitting the far post minutes later.

Denbrook scored the game’s best goal in the 71st minute when his shot from 25 yards smashed into the roof of the net. “Kyle is capable of those types of shots,” Kerwin Moreno, the team’s coach, said.

Footy Kings tried to find a way back as they pushed more men forward, including defender Kijuan Franks, However, the St George’s defence stood firm before Paynter closed out the scoring two minutes into extra time, following up after a shot from substitute Tre McCallan was blocked and scoring from the rebound.

“We held it together, we weren’t as dominant as we should be but we’re through to the next round,” added Moreno who says this is a season of rebuilding after losing their three key goalscorers, Donavan Thompson, Jarazinho Bassett and Jahron Dickinson this season. Thompson scored all four goals in last year’s win over Footy Kings.

“Footy Kings gave us a good game in the first half, but they faded out which allowed us to build momentum,” Moreno added.

“They gave us a good game last year, too, when the match went into extra time.”

St George’s reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup last year after beating Somerset Trojans in the first round. This win was only their second this season after last weekend’s victory over Vasco.

“It’s still a work in progress but we’re getting there,” Moreno said. “We lost three of our top scorers last year and we’re rebuilding. It’s coming along nice and we just have to push on.

“Promotion is not really a main factor but development is right now. As you can see there are a lot of young players coming into the team, which is a good thing.”

TEAMS

St George’s (4-3-3): M Paynter — A Francis, J Hayward, E Signor, G Wade — K Denbrook (sub: C Marshall, 77min), K Ottley, D Signor — M Simmons (sub: T DeSouza, 73), J Brangman (sub: T McCallan, 61), S Paynter. Substitutes not used: S Paynter, M Mendes, Z Burgess, C Wade.

Footy Kings (4-3-3): J Williams — R Wilson, K Franks, A Lowe, Z Darrell — E Wilkin (sub: K Goddard, 51), T Foote, A Brown (sub: O Ray, 63) — A Williams, R Bean, R Hayward (sub: M Johnson, 84). Substitutes not used: R Roberts, A Charles, J Caisey, L Simons, J Dill, M Russell. Booked: Wilkin, Goddard.

Referee: L Christopher.