Brit Pioneers U14 2 Furness Cavaliers U14 3

BEN Boulton produced a stunning 35-yard free-kick to win the Ulverston Hospitals Cup for Furness Cavaliers.

The final at Holker Street between the top two under-14s teams in the Barrow and District League was their third meeting of a tough season and, in the end, provided Cavs with a little revenge for missing out on the league title.

A see-saw battle that kept everyone guessing until the game’s last rites was brought to life on six minutes with a fine opening goal.

George Hornby, who was excellent all game, was found in the Brit box by striker Moses Helliwell’s reverse pass and coolly stroked the ball into the bottom left corner past Brit keeper Jay Barker to put Cavs 1-0 up.

Cavaliers have a habit of making quick starts and possibly could have made it a two-goal lead through Helliwell, but Barker stopped well from the one-on-one chance before the Brit started to find space of their own.

The Rampside Road side had a couple of warnings, with keeper Will Hackett racing off his line on two occasions to claim the ball ahead of Brit winger Jack Litherland and striker Tommy Dawson, before Dawson slid home the equaliser after latching on to a ball over the top.

Midfielder Jacob Carway came on for Cavs in a reshuffle on 20 minutes and his first act was to rifle home to make it 2-1, his right-footed effort flying back across Barker’s goal.

The game continued to throw up chances, with the hard pitch making defending and passing tricky.

On 25 minutes Tommy Dawson was put through and beat Hackett and flicked the ball goalwards, only to see right-back Liam Clark tracking back to make an important goal-line clearance when a goal would have put the Brit in the driving seat at 2-1.

On 30 minutes, Dawson was injured in a collision with Hackett. There was nothing nasty and the centre forward just got the worst of a 50/50 challenge.

The wait for the ambulance did little for anyone’s nerves, but the news from Furness General Hospital later promised that the injury is not as bad as first feared.

The boys returned to play out the last five minutes of the half and great work from Hornby and Robin Oldfield down Cavs’ right put the ball on a plate for Helliwell, only for him to be denied by an amazing save from Barker, going the wrong way and stopping the effort with his right foot.

The second half was a little less frantic and the game seemed to be settling down into a pattern of the two defences getting on top, with opportunities rare for both sides.

Max Green, having moved to centre forward to take Dawson’s place, always looked the Brit’s most likely route back into the game, and so it proved.

On the hour, after good work from Ferreira and Hylton, Green was brought down in the box under Boulton’s challenge and, though it seemed hard on Cav’s centre-back, the referee pointed to the spot.

Green made no error with the spot-kick and smashed it home to make it 2-2.

In previous seasons, Cavs may have crumbled but not this time.

Hornby surged up-field for the umpteenth time in an amazing performance, only to be pulled down 35 yards from the Brit goal.

From the resulting free-kick, Boulton produced a sublime result, swerving a wicked, curling right-footer past Barker into the top left corner of the Holker Street end goal to win the cup for his side – a true piece of captain marvel stuff from an inspirational figure.

It was a goal fit to win any title and the two best teams in the league showed again why they carry that mantle.

They will be back to play each other again at Holker Street in the Barrow JFL KO Cup final on May 22.