Footy Kings 3 Tuff Dogs 4

Keishen Bean scored a hat-trick for Footy Kings but his efforts were in vain as he side fell to defeat against Tuff Dogs in the FA Cup at Goose Gosling Field on Saturday night.

Dogs made a dominant start, keeping the ball confidently to break through the Footy Kings defence with ease and they got the breakthrough their start deserved inside ten minutes when Thomas Brown fed Kyle Hamilton, who cut inside and finished low past goalkeeper Aaron Browne.

After that setback Kings began to take advantage of the high line deployed by Tuff Dogs and got into dangerous positions with Darius Cox firing an aerial ball to Bean, who equalised by finishing low past Sean Burgess.

Footy Kings went ahead in the second half after a controversial decision by referee Gregory Todd, who awarded a penalty when Gary Adams lightly pushed Bean after the striker was played through by Keith Jennings. Bean brushed himself off and coolly slotted the resulting spot-kick past Burgess.

Less than three minutes later Tuff Dogs pulled level from a sweeping move with Hamilton outmuscling Seion Darrell to drive into the penalty area before finishing past Browne, and they would take the lead just after the hour mark with Hamilton returning the favour to square for Gerardo, who curled into the near post.

The match got sloppy for a period with both teams giving the ball away before a beautiful pass from Keith Jennings to Bean, who completed his hat-trick by rounding Burgess and finishing into the empty net.

Tuff Dogs found a measure of composure in the final 20 minutes and they found the winner in the final moments when Hamilton cut back for Trott, who found Kenneth Brown to finish low into the near post.

Tuff Dogs attacker Hamilton, who made a significant contribution with two goals and an assist, was pleased with the team’s determination.

“The whole team fought for 90 minutes,” he said. “We got tired towards the end, but we kept going and got the result. We had several chances and we weren’t at our best, but we were still clinical on most of them.”

Player-coach Jensen Rogers was delighted with the personality showed by the team.

“Footy Kings are a good team,” Rogers said. “Whenever they came back, we showed character and scored ourselves but we knew if we could score in the final ten minutes, it would be the final nail in the coffin.”

GOALS

Footy Kings: Bean 20, 48, 69

Tuff Dogs: Hamilton 8, 51; Gerardo 64; K Brown 88

TEAMS

Footy Kings (4-3-3): A Browne 5 – Z Carter 5, S Darrell 6, D Cox 6, M Johnson 5 – M Thomas 6, K Jennings 6, D Martin 5 (sub: K Smith, 46min 5) – O Ray 5 (sub: V Minors, 65 6), K Bean 7, W Place 5 (sub: K Dill, 65 5). Substitutes not used: M Aden, G Gardner, J Caisey.

Tuff Dogs (4-2-3-1): S Burgess 6 – S McKittrick 5, C DeSilva 6 (sub: S McKittrick, 54 5), C Bean 5, C Smith 6 (sub: N Araujo, 54 5) – T Brown 6, G Adams 5 – K Jones 5 (sub: K Brown, 65 6), M Gerardo 5 (sub: J Rogers, 67 5), K Hamilton 6 – J Trott 5. Substitutes not used: C Tully, A Lee; Booked: Rogers

Referee: G Todd