The Double!
Olympic Kingsway produced a stirring fightback from 2-0 down to beat Perth RedStar 3-2 after extra-time and win the 2024 Men’s State Cup.
This is the first time the Green Machine have won the competition and completes a league and cup double for David Tough’s side.
It was an emotional night at the Sam Kerr Football Centre for Tough, who arrived back from Scotland on Friday after being home for the past fortnight following the death of his mother. At the presentation, he pointed skywards as he raised the trophy aloft with co-captains Mitch Oxborrow and Aryn Williams.
It was Williams who received the Stan Lazaridis Medal as Player of the Match.
As for RedStar, they will reflect on an incident-packed first half in which they raced into a two-goal lead inside seven minutes, conceded a penalty and then had defender Nic Walsh dismissed.
Olympic had hardly recovered when they slipped further behind. Matty George played in Daryl Nicol with a brilliantly weighted pass and the RedStar striker fired low across Sinagra and into the far corner.
Kingsway’s fortunes turned when they were awarded a penalty in the 25th minute for a foul by keeper Liam Reddy on Williams. Joe Knowles converted the spot-kick and the champions were back in the game.
Things took another twist as Knowles had to leave the game injured. But any boost RedStar might have got from seeing the opposition’s danger man depart was forgotten when they were reduced to 10 men as Walsh saw red for pulling back Joe Hobson as the Olympic man looked to get on the end of the defender’s under-hit back-pass.
RedStar saw it through to half-time but six minutes after the restart Olympic were back level. Tyler Garner and Liam Boland opened up their defence before substitute Luke Hewings’ shot looped over Reddy and into the net.
Olympic looked to take advantage of the extra man and they created a number of chances to win it, most notably when Boland misdirected a free header from right in front of goal.
But their pressure eventually told. Early in the second period of extra time, Calum O’Connell met Lebib Lebib’s cross at the back post and directed the ball past Reddy to win it.
Report – via Football West