Landlords triumph in Senior Cup Final

The ‘Battle of Aggborough’ saw landlords Kidderminster Harriers securing the Worcestershire Senior Cup for the first time in five years.

A Sean Geddes strike gave City hope of winning the Trophy for the first time since 1997 but a quick response from Harriers through Luke Maxwell and a goal from Jared Hodkiss 12 minutes from the end gave Harriers a 2-1 victory.

As with previous Cup games this season, City were more than a match for their higher graded opponents for long periods of the game. Daniel Nti produced City's first chance, pouncing on a Kennedy Digie error in the box only to fire over. Harriers first chance came via captain Jack Byrne who hit a speculative 25-yard effort, which went wide.

Daniel Nti created the best chances in the first half, getting the better of Digie more than once and forcing Jasbir Singh to make one save and watch another go wide. Digie was replaced by Hodgkiss after just 23 minutes but the substitute encountered the same problems clipping Nti over in the box, but referee Wayne Barratt dismissed the penalty appeals.

The first half ended with Harriers having a goal disallowed. A through ball was played to Akwasi Asante who was in an offside position but Keyon Refill burst through and slotted the ball through Jose Veiga, made no effort to make a save after the Referee had already blown up due to the linesman’s raised flag.

ON 49 minutes hopes of a first City trophy since 2001were raised as Sean Geddes broke the deadlock. A neat City move ended with Geddes curling a left footed effort from outside the box and beyond the reach of Singh into the bottom corner.

But that hope ended just five minutes later when Veiga palmed a dangerous Reid free-kick round the post and from the resulting corner Maxwell slammed home following a goalmouth scramble in the City box.

Then with twelve minutes remaining Harriers took the lead when Hodgkiss played a neat one-two with Ahemd Obeng down the right flank, took a touch in the box and fired past Veiga.

Daniel Nti had a shot blocked with the final kick of the game to deny a late equaliser and it was Harriers who lifted the trophy for the 26th time.