Rusthall held on to take the honours during an entertaining Kent Merit Under-18 Boys Cup Final at Whitstable’s Belmont ground on Sunday.
Having opened the scoring early on, and dominated the first half, Rusthall came up against a spirited response in the second half from a Cray side who had to play 55 minutes with 10 men.
Rusthall manager Jonny Elwood said: “Massive credit to Cray, we played them in the League Cup and they had a man sent off then as well yet they went ahead in that game so we knew they weren’t going to go down lightly.
“They’ve got quality and loads of pace so if there’s one team you don’t want to face when they’ve gone down to 10, it’s probably them.
“They chucked the kitchen sink at us but we stood up to it. I said at the start of the game if we kept a clean sheet then we’d win the game, as our forward players will always score.
“I’m proud that we stuck at the task. In the first half we were excellent, second half against a team with nothing to lose, it’s almost the hardest game to play in many ways.
“It was a brilliant game and really enjoyable.”
Rusthall should have led inside the first three minutes when an unselfish square ball set up Jack Lyons but his shot was blocked on the line by the covering Kaya Mahmut.
The lively Hayden Marshall dragged a right-foot shot wide but he made no mistake on nine minutes, collecting a lovely through ball he advanced to just inside the penalty area before expertly arrowing his shot in the top corner.
Cray responded with winger Corey Holden looking lively down the left and centre-back Finley Avery had a low effort well saved by keeper Jack Glassborrow.
Rusthall continued to enjoy the better chances, though, left-back Harry Palmer advanced before seeing his low shot well held by Ethan Binnie.
The Cray keeper then produced an outstanding one-handed save to turn Marshall’s right-foot shot away for a corner.
Cray’s task to get back into the contest was made harder on 35 minutes when striker Tommy Allen-Beattie was shown a red card for a poor challenge on Anthony Mepham.
At this point, Cray were in danger of losing the final due to poor discipline so their management team were probably thankful for the half-time whistle.
The team talk seemed to do the trick and Cray managed to play more with their heads than hearts in the second half as they took the game to Rusthall despite their numerical advantage.
Only an excellent piece of defending by Rusthall’s Frank Little denied Cray a tap-in from Holden’s cross and then clever footwork by Michael Ihiedi saw his pull-back miscued by Cameron McQueen-Hinkley.
Cray were handed a golden opportunity to get back into the game when Ihiedi’s flick-on set up George Brooke, whose protest was halted by a high foot from the otherwise faultless Palmer.
That gave Cray a penalty but Holden’s spot-kick lacked power and conviction, allowing Glassborrow to make a comfortable save.
While Rusthall had a couple of late chances to wrap the tie up, it was Cray who looked the more likely. Ihiedi saw another shot save before dragging an effort wide.
There was nearly one late twist, in the 11th minute of stoppage time, when Brooke did well to work room 25 yards from goal but his excellent low shot was well turned away by Glassborrow.
Cray Wanderers: Ethan Binnie, Callum Redman, Oliver Chiriseri, Kaya Mahmut, Finley Avery, Leonard Rye, Freddie Warwick, Tommy Allen-Beattie, George Brooke, David Boateng, Michael Ihiedi, Jaylen Bains, Andy Dzontah, Cameron McQueen-Hinkley.
Rusthall: Jack Glassborrow, Austin Kent, Frank Little, Toby Crampton, Harry Palmer, Anthony Mepham, Jack Lyons, Hayden Marshall, Zead Massood, Yusuf Rabbaj, Yukai Cheng, Ben Williams, Joe Brum, Callum Wright, Ashton Malyon-Chantler, Finn Appleby.
Referee: Dylan Wood.
