Brighton and Hove Albion FC 1
County Armagh 1
(Brighton and Hove Albion win on penalties)
By Thomas McNamee
Brighton and Hove Albion secured their first ever title at SuperCupNI after defeating Armagh in a compelling final at the Coleraine Showgrounds.
It was a day where both the Junior and Premier finals were decided by penalties in front of a large crowd at the home of Coleraine FC.
Albion netted all of their strikes but two unfortunate misses from Armagh saw the Premier League side take the trophy back to East Sussex.
Brighton and Hove Albion took an early lead straight from the first corner as Zebedee Lawson crossed for Brighton Tobi Akapo to direct a powerful header into the Armagh net.
On nine minutes the scoreline could have been doubled but a great ball into the area by Cristiano Anah met the head of Austin Pugh but he was denied by the Seagulls shot stopper.
On the 18th minute a penalty was awarded to Armagh after Alex Eakin was brought down and Jacob Farr converted cooly to level matters.
On the 30th minute Farr latched onto a mix-up and nearly scored again but Brighton lived to fight another day.
In the second half Brighton’s Matthew Allen had a long range effort that was deflected off Eoghan Liggett but Brighton keeper Callum Furber made a top save.
Brighton’s defence just managed to clear the ball with number 5 Tobi Akapo showing great strides of pace to deny the onrushing Armagh forwards. A speculative long range effort from Armagh’s number 15 Paul Stanfield went glancing over the bar. Armagh’s number 2 Rhys Williamson then crossed for Paul McGovern and the number 10 fired over the bar.
Towards the end of the game both sides launched a series of dangerous attacks and some top saves from Callum Furber in particular in the Brighton goal kept out an onslaught from the likes of Parsons and Pugh
Penalties looked inevitable as both sides spurned decent chances to settle the game within the allotted 90 minutes as the bar was hit on a number of occasions from both Brighton and Armagh forwards going close. In the end it was Brighton who would run out 4-2 victors in a tense-ridden penalty shootout.
In the other Premier finals, Championship side Middlesbrough were narrow winners against Dundalk Schoolboys League in the Bowl at the Limavady Showgrounds. In the Globe semi-final crowd favourites Manchester United were defeated on penalties by County Londonderry at the Riada Stadium.
In the Vase, Rangers saw off Mexican opponents Toluca by 2-1 and in the Salver, Inter CT were defeated by Shoshi at the Riada Stadium in an entertaining clash.