Inkberrow 1, Redditch Borough 2

DEFENDER Garrath Hodgetts brought up his deadly dozen in the second minute of added time to fire Redditch Borough to cup glory.

The centre-half plundered his 12th goal of a prolific campaign, guiding a shot from a far-post scramble back across goal and through a crowded penalty area to decide matters in the Evesham Hospital Junior Cup showpiece held at Jubilee Stadium, Evesham.

Despite dominating possession for most of the match, Borough had to survive scares as Inkberrow hit the post before Ellis Kalach opened the scoring with George Thomas then spurning a golden opportunity to move two up.

But once Redditch’s lively frontrunner Billy Garvey had converted the 75th-minute penalty he had earned, it was one-way traffic with Hodgetts on hand to finally make the pressure pay.

Chances were few and far between in the first half with Craig Malins denied by a deflection and Ollie Saunders driving over the bar from the edge of the box for Borough.

The chance of the half came in from a rare Inkberrow attack when Nathan Davies centred for Kalach whose effort into the ground bounced beyond keeper Ryan Young only for Dean Hay to clear off the line.

Garvey had strong penalty shout waved away when he clashed with Chris Parish five minutes before half-time and he continued to have an influence in the second half.

Seven minutes after the restart, Garvey turned and unleashed a fierce dipping 25-yard blast that was pushed around the upright by alert stopper Dan Dawson.

Within a minute, Inkberrow surged forward with Brad Hands collecting a pinged ball and laying off for Kalach, who perhaps expected his team-mate to shoot. Kalach did pull the trigger and his off-target effort was scrambled against the upright by Hands before Borough thumped clear.

Redditch did concede on the hour when a clever reverse pass released Nathan Davies to cross for the unmarked Kalach to slam home from close range.

Ten minutes later, Inkberrow substitute Josh Walker held up a high ball and played through Thomas one on one but he blazed over with the goal at his mercy.

The tide quickly turned with Garvey levered to the floor by a combination of Hands and Chris Parish despite appearing to have nowhere to go on the left of the box.

Garvey dusted himself down and confidently steered into Dawson’s top left corner and the leveller promoted a Redditch onslaught.

Borough substitute Matt Fearon’s scissor kick came back off the post from AJ Adelekan’s cut back before Garvey took a ball down the left in his stride only to be thwarted at the near post by Dawson.

Time appeared to be up but when Garvey was fouled on the halfway line, Hodgetts’s driven free-kick was diverted agonisingly close to the net by an Inkberrow defender and from the corner that followed, Hodgetts made no mistake during a late scramble.

Borough: Young, English (Bowles, 71), Adelekan, Hay, Hatfield, Hodgetts, Malins, Fullerton (Bruce, 76), Garvey, Saunders, (Fearon, 64), Sowe. Unused subs: Westwood, Hall.

Inkberrow: Dawson, Hands (S Parish, 88), Cook, Porter, C Davies, C Parish, Thomas, Coughlin (Hill, 66), Kalach (Walker, 66), N Davies, Gregson-Jones. Unused subs: James, Harrison.