Hamilton Parish 2 Flanagan’s Onions 1

Hamilton Parish came from a goal down at the half to beat Flanagan’s Onions at Wellington Oval and begin what coach Kieshon Smith hopes will be another good cup run.

Parish, who ended the first half of the season by reaching a first Friendship Trophy final, were largely unimpressive in the first half when Onions took a 12th minute lead through striker Kevin Ronaldson’s low drive.

However, the level of the game raised a couple of notches immediately after the restart as Parish looked a different team after coach Smith’s half-time talk as they responded with two goals in seven minutes to turn the match around.

Within four minutes of the restart they were back level when a shot from outside the box by midfielder Kneiko Richardson was blocked by the Onions goalkeeper Stephen Gould and the alert Donovan Thompson was quick to pounce on the loose ball to tap home from four yards.

Parish were now playing with the belief that they could win this match, while at the other end Onions gave the hint that they were still in it, too, when Ronaldson headed straight at goalkeeper Nigel Burgess.

Onions then created a couple of quick openings after that before Thompson went on a run towards the Onions defence, but his shot from the right edge of the box was blocked by Gould.

The Hot Peppers scored what turned out to be their winner in the 56th minute when the alert Shayne Hollis pounced on an intended back pass to the Onions goalkeeper and calmly steered his effort into the open goal.

Thompson went close to adding an insurance goal in the 72nd minute when he put his effort from 20 yards just over the crossbar.

Coach Smith was pleased with the way his team battled back after a flat first half to clinch a deserved victory.

“No, it wasn’t good enough in the first half,” he stated. “We’re trying to find our form and get back to the momentum that got us in good shape in the first half of the season and took up to our first Friendship final.

“Cup games seem to bring the best out of us so it is just a matter of us, as a young team, transforming our cup consistency and taking it to the league.

“This was a good game for us to move forward, it puts us into the quarter final draw, so it leaves us with another opportunity to do something special and gives us the motivation to keep going forward.

“We battled well in the second half and started playing the football that we are known to do when we play good football. It was a good response for the team today and something to build on.”