Birmingham manager claims County's fourth Youth Cup title.
Kent County FA |
1-2 |
Birmingham County FA |
Sam Cliff 40 |
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Marvin Johnson 4, Liam Doyle 82 |
The FA County Youth Cup
The Final
3pm, Saturday 2 May 2009
Priestfield Stadium, Gillingham FC
Click here to watch highlights of The Final
Birmingham County FA manager Martin Sweeney said his U18 representative side deserved their 2-1 victory over Kent in The FA County Youth Cup at Priestfield.
Sweeney, who has now managed the County side for 12 years, said it would be unfair to mention individuals after his side lifted The Cup for the fourth time in the County’s history but he was prepared to make an exception.
“The players deserve it, all credit to them,” said Sweeney. “It would be unfair to mention any individual players but in this case I will. The skipper [Dean Rathbone] was superb and although there are lots of people to be mentioned I’ll just mention him, so he can take all the stick!”
Sweeney has enjoyed a prolific period in this competition having reached four Finals and been crowned winners three times in the last decade, but his side did not get everything their own way against an impressive Kent side.
“We’d watched Kent in their Semi-Final in the Isle of Man and obviously Kent are a good side. They’ve got some outstanding players…so we realised the importance of starting quickly. It was a very difficult game,” said Sweeney.
Despite some early nerves, Birmingham settled well and got an early breakthrough.
“I thought we started quite well,” said the Birmingham manager. “The first goal came very early on from a nothing ball in the box, if you like. Kent failed to clear, we got a couple of lucky bounces and it ended up in the back of the net.”
Birmingham were brimming with confidence and continued to dominate the first half but could not get that all important second goal.
“We were looking for the second goal and we were thinking two goals should do it. With the weather and the temperature, heads would go down,” said Sweeney.
“We dominated the game in the first half and probably should have had more than one goal. Then, late on, our worst nightmare. Conceding from our own corner. That gave Kent a great lift. Really, in a game they really shouldn’t have been in, they go in 1-1 at half-time.”
Sweeney admitted that there were some harsh words in the dressing room at half-time and that his team were forced rethink their game-plan to reassert their authority in the second half.
“We had to try and get back to basics. Work our way up the pitch and get some dead balls. We had a free-kick 25 or 30-yards out – and we do spend a lot of time working on free-kicks – and we were lucky enough to score from it. Needless to say, the whole place erupted, as far as we were concerned. It was a massive moment,” said Sweeney.
The late winner was enough to take The Cup back to Birmingham and Sweeney believes the victory will have a positive affect on the County and those involved with the Football Association.
“We like to think that it means something to Birmingham. It will give everybody a lift, the League and the players. And we’re lucky enough to have ten of those players available next year,” said the County’s most successful ever manager.
