Brighton and Hove Albion won the Super Cup NI Premier section on penalties after a 1-1 draw with County Armagh in the final
In front of a bumper crowd at the Coleraine Showgrounds, County Armagh could not have had a worse start. The Seagulls pilfered possession straight from the kick off and won a corner. From that corner, Zebedee Lawson’s delivery was met by a powerful header from Tobi Akapo from six yards and the deadlock was broken after less than a minute.
Armagh were stunned and almost conceded a second on eight minutes when Bode Newnham-Reeve’s delivery from the left connected with the run of Austin Pugh but goalkeeper Sean Hamill made an excellent save.
After this shaky start, the Orchard county began to feel their way back into proceedings. Paul McGovern , who broke into the Newry City senior side last year, had two efforts from outside the box well stopped by Stan Williamson. However, an equaliser arrived on 18 minutes when Armagh captain Alex Eakin was felled at the byline by a needless challenge by Jackson Morby and the referee pointed to the spot. The penalty was coolly dispatched by Jacob Farr who sent the keeper the wrong way to level proceedings.
The local side had the better of proceedings for the rest of the first half as they recovered well from their disastrous start. They almost took the lead just two minutes after the restart when Matthew Allen’s long-rage strike from a free-kick move was flicked on by Eoghan Liggett only for it to be turned behind.
The second period became slower and more bitty as legs tired but substitute Harry Gough almost won it in stoppage time only for his pile-driver to rattle the crossbar. That meant that, after the Junior final was decided on spot kicks earlier in the day, the second final of the day would go all the way.
Unfortunately for Armagh, this final would go the same way as the Premier League academy outfit got the better of the county side. Two misses from the Orchard men combined with the Seagulls scoring all of their kicks meant the Super Cup NI Premier cup would be going back to the south coast of England.