Maryport Athletic lost out to Unisun Athletic in their bid to retain the Cumberland County League Premier Division title.
But they made up for it last night by winning the league’s Benevolent Cup for a remarkable fourth year in a row.
It wasn’t easy, though, as it took two late goals to beat Mirehouse 2-0 and retain the trophy.
It wasn’t a thrilling final for the neutral to watch as the first half was very scrappy as neither side were able to play much in the way of possession football.
Maryport did start to win more possession in the second half and were able to put Mirehouse under a bit of pressure.
However it was a sinbinning for a Mirehouse player 15 minutes from the end which really gave Maryport the momentum to go on and win the game.
Ciaran Laverty got on the end of a cross from Alec Little and broke the deadlock with a well-placed header that found the bottom corner.
Mirehouse responded well and applied some strong pressure for the last 10 minutes when Maryport had to show a lot of determination in defence.
Even then it took a brilliant double save from Craig Rule to keep Maryport’s lead and then in the closing seconds substitute Josh Patterson added the second goal with the last kick of the game.
There was also a semi-final last night in the League Cup Tier 2 section in which Cleator Moor Celtic reserves won 1-0 at Keswick.
But the main talking point afterwards was the fact that there were five red cards and for the last 20 minutes it was Keswick’s nine against Celtic’s eight.
It wasn’t a particularly dirty game, either, but two players were sent off for a first half skirmish, followed by one each for second yellow cards and finally a Celtic player for a dangerous tackle.
Keswick’s Ryan Sibley had a penalty saved and then in the last 20 minutes they hit the post and were denied by a couple of good saves by the Celtic keeper.
Celtic won it with the only goal of the game on 62 minutes from Thomas Crawley, who latched onto an under-hit back pass.
The other Cup-tie last night was ion the Whitehaven Cup where Premier Division Whitehaven Miners were too strong for Division One opponents Bransty Rangers and won the quarter final 7-0.
The goals were scored by Paul McNally (2), Owen Woods (2), Brayden Walsmley (2) and Alpha Yaha.
