St Panteleimon FC survived the pandemic to come out and win the Middlesex Premier Cup on Wednesday night in a season where few trophies were won and they beat Kensington & Ealing Borough 3-1 in a thrilling Cup Final in front of 200 fans at Rectory Park.
St Panteleimon were quick starting and were awarded a penalty when one of their players was pulled down in the box, Noyan Tajbakhsh stepped up to take the penalty and smashed his shot against the bar giving Kensington and Ealing a sigh of relief. Minutes later again St Panteleimon could have scored when a ball was crossed right across the path of the opposing team and their players failed to reach out to slide or tap the ball into the net.
In the 20th minute a shot from the edge of box from Courtney Massey brought off a great save from the Kensington and Ealing goalkeeper.
In the 30th minute St Panteleimon took the lead when a cross from the right was saved by the keeper but dropped the ball and Hamid was there to curl the ball from a narrow angle into the back of the net.
Minutes later a Kensington and Ealing free kick was gloriously saved by Donald Manaj and minutes later hit the bar with a header keeping the St Panteleimon defence busy.
In the 40th minute Kensington and Ealing went down to ten men when their player was sent off for a second yellow card. Then just before the break they equalised when a shot was saved by Donald Manaj and then their player was pulled down in the box and they scored from the awarded penalty to go into the break 1-1 into the break.
In the Second Half the Saints went to town a counter attack four against two led to them taking a 2-1 lead when Kevin placed the ball into the far corner of the net.
Then Brad hit the bar with a phenomenal 40 yard shot, who five minutes later passed to Hamid who crossed for Courtney to score in the 80th minute to make it 3-1 and go on to give The Saints a glorious Cup win.
St Panteleimon have also been promoted and will be playing in the Combined Counties Football League next season so its been a good season.