DFDS Kent Sunday Junior Cup Final: Cliffe Woods Colts 3 Eastern Athletic 5 aet

Not content with scoring one wonder goal, Eastern Athletic promptly scored four stunners on their way to an extra-time DFDS Kent Sunday Junior Cup Final win at Maidstone on Sunday.

The standard was set after Dan Rumbol’s second-minute opener, and the Isle of Sheppey-based team eventually prevailed in the additional half-hour of an enthralling affair.

Eastern Athletic manager Dan Merritt said: “We’ve got a little phrase at our club and that’s there’s only one way to do it and that’s the Eastern way - and that is always the hard way!

“They fully deserved it. They’ve put loads of effort in throughout the season, we’ve had some brilliant ties in this competition and we’re really proud to have won it.

“This team is never down and out. We’ve got quality throughout the team.

“Once we went two goals ahead in extra-time I felt a little bit more comfortable.

“We’ve only been running a few years, we’ve only entered this competition once and now we’ve won it!”

Player-of-the-match Rumbol scored from at least 35 yards to give Eastern an early advantage, given plenty of room he needed no second invitation to unleash a dipping and swerving blockbuster that beat keeper Matt Clark.

Cliffe Woods should have levelled immediately but Joe Simpson volleyed over after Ozan Hassan was denied by keeper Mitchell Ware.

But it mattered little as they equalised on 10 minutes, Hassan collecting a perfectly-weighted through ball and rounding the advancing Ware before slotting into an empty net.

Cliffe Woods went ahead nine minutes before half-time, the ball falling kindly for Hassan on the edge of the area after his first shot was blocked, as he arrowed home a low drive.

Eastern went close through Jack Perry and Mark Hornsby but needed something