A Boca side that had been eating too much spinach proved a handful in the opening period as we struggled to get to grips with their physical approach and arial onslought and our only "chances" in the first 20 minutes came from a string of set pieces.
Until - in the 23rd Jack picked up the ball deep in our half, drove into space and then slotted the ball round the closing defender, Kim timed his run to perfection and drove into the corner before whipping a pinpoint cross to Ollie who finished with a powerful header - a lovely move rewarded with a lovely goal 1-0.
Just minutes later in the 29th they won a corner and although we cleared our lines we were too slow to compete for the 2nd ball and they clipped the ball around our defence as we came out, Gary had no chance as they equalised at 1-1. We lacked the composure to regroup and just 3 minutes later we were behind 1-2 when we failed to take any of the three chances we had to deal with our own sliced clearance. We countered after the restart and Jack took command of a 25/28 yard freekick to strike a piledriver through their wall and straight through the 'keeper. At 2-2 we had chances to kill the game before half time but a combination of good 'keeping, hesitation and poor finishing meant we hit the break all square.
The opening period of the 2nd half was another battle broken only by Billys yellow card and Kims wicked shot saved at full stretch by a very good 'keeper. In the 17th minute a period of head tennis was brought to an end when Kyle brought the ball down and released Sam who showed how to finish 1 on 1 by cutting across the defender and curling the ball into the far corner. Just 2 minutes later we found our selves all square at 3-3 when after fluffing 2 gilt edge chances they countered with an end-to end move which sliced us open and left Gary with no chance. As with the first half we struggled to regain our composure and just a minute later we were 3-4 down when we conceded a penalty to a goal line handball.
With 10 minutes left and them running the clock down Nathan was brought on for Bill to give yardage options with his long throw and Kyle was pushed up top between Sam and Ollie to work their back four harder - twice Kyle went agonisingly close to equalising. 2 minutes to go Nathan unleashed a long throw from their right hand corner - in the near post panic Kim found the composure to ute a lovely tight overhead kick - eat your heart out Rooney and dry your eyes Boca.
We've done this before and the momentum was with us in extra time. It took just 2 minutes for them to upend Kim as he powered into the box. He converted himself and it was goodnight Vienna as they sent the ball into orbit looking to the skys for an equaliser which never came.
It took us a while to get going today and we went wandering at key moments, especially after restarts when we were strangely vunerable - we'll speak about this again at training but that aside we did what we had to do today and we did it as a team. We battled, kept going, kept believing in our football and were eventually rewarded with a place in our first final of the season. Lets forget about that for now - today wont be worth shit if we dont deliver on the big stage - lets turn our attention to next Sunday when we face another big test. At this stage of the season its about who has the biggest bollocks and we've got cannon balls. Results are everything - bring it on.
Everyone put in a good shift today, well done. MOM Darryl, he worked hard to find his game today, showed fantastic commitment, battled for everything and still showed glimpses of class.
