Durham 1

FIVE Camelford Football Club players, Joe Adkins, Charlie Hambly, Ed Harrison, Josh Penrose and James Heywood, will get the chance to represent Cornwall under 18s in the FA County Youth Cup final after beating Durham 2-1 at?St Blazey last Saturday.

Helston’s Matt Buchan was the hero as he scored in each half to send the Duchy through to the final for the first time in their history.

They will take on Middlesex in a few weeks time after they hammered Oxfordshire 7-2.

In a high quality match befitting of the occasion, both teams tore into each other from the off, but it was Glynn Hooper’s Cornwall who started the brighter in the opening stages.

On 21 minutes they went in front when Camelford forward Joe Adkins ran down the wing and slid the ball across for Buchan to fire the ball home from six yards.

Despite taking the lead, Cornwall continued to pile forward without really threatening Carl Robinson in the visitors goal.

Durham, led by the lively Neil Milburn, grew into the contest in the last five minutes of the first-half and nearly equalised when Elliott Forbes saw his shot go inches wide.

The opening 15 minutes after the break were somewhat scrappy, but Cornwall nearly doubled their lead on the hour, and again man of the match Ed Harrison was heavily involved.

His free-kick caused chaos in the Durham defence, but Robinson was out smartly to block Adkins’ shot.

On 68 minutes it was party time in the crowd as Hooper’s men went 2-0 up.

A long ball from Olly Walker set Adkins away, but he was fouled as he burst into the area, leaving Buchan to hammer the ball in and leave Cornwall on the verge of something special.

However, with nothing to lose, the visitors started to pile forward.

Luke Gwilliam was forced to make a brilliant save from Milburn but he couldn’t do anything to stop Durham getting back into the game with ten minutes to go.

From a seemingly offside position, the ball was played into the Cornwall box and eventually found Gareth McMahon who had the simple task of heading in from just a couple of yards.

Camelford’s Josh Penrose was a constant threat down the right all afternoon and he nearly turned provider for Walker to make it safe, while skipper Charlie Hambly and Joel Allen were forced to make a series of fine interventions in the closing stages.

Durham’s frustrations were starting to boil over, and they were reduced to ten-men in the final minute of injury-time after David Latham’s late lunge on Josh Otto.

Soon after, the referee blew his whistle to spark wild celebrations as Cornwall reached their first ever FA County Youth Cup final.