CYRIL ANEKSTEIN CUP ROUND ONE
CAMDEN PARK 2 STRAW HAT PIRATES 1
Kay admitted before kick-off that "this was never going to be easy" as Camden had "spent the last two weeks working exceptionally hard to recruit players both old and new and hope to get players back from injury, hoping to get a squad together that will allow us to compete through out the season".
Camden's new boys hit the ground running and they went 2-0 up in the opening exchanges. A fantastic strike from Rob Hershman and one from debutante Rickardo Ercoli put them in charge. They missed a hatful of other presentable chances and could have been out of sight by half-time.
The Pirates came out believing they could cause a big upset and a goal from Aron Gale set up a grandstand finish but Camden held their nerve to reach round two.
Kay told JC Sport; "In the end we saw the game out to go through,but in truth we made very hard work of it and there could be no complaints if we had reached double figures.
"However, the Pirates should be very proud of the way they defended and kept themselves in the game."
Kay described man-of-the-match Ben Harris, playing his first game in a year, as "excellent at the back and going forwards".
Proud Pirates boss Elliot Cukier told JC Sport: "We walk away today frustrated but with our heads held high. For our fourth game in our first ever season, coming up against a strong Premier Lague side was a daunting task, made worse by our unsatisfactory performance against Vale last week. But today we walk away knowing we gave everything.
"Fair play to Camden, they scored two wonder goals within the first 10 minutes. But thank god, instead of collapsing like we did against Vale, we picked ourselves up and took the game to Camden.
"Well done to Camden for managing to hold out the second half as we were causing issues for them all over so that by the last few minutes - they were passing the ball around the corner flat to try and kill the game off, because they knew we were close to an upset. A good game all round and we now move back to focusing on teams in our division as we look to climb the league."
