Needham Market celebrate first Suffolk U18 Midweek Cup final victory with penalty shootout win over AFC Sudbury at Colchester United

Needham Market have won the Suffolk U18 Midweek Cup for the first time.

The Marketmen won 6-5 on penalties against AFC Sudbury after a thrilling 3-3 draw in Wednesday night’s final at Colchester United’s JobServe Community Stadium.

They came from 2-0 down to lead 3-2, before conceding an 86th-minute penalty, but held their nerve in the shoot-out despite never being ahead until Luca Savill buried the winning spot-kick.

Needham Market Manager Colin Grogan said: “It is testament to the work that James Mant and the academy team have put in over the course of the season, with a group of lads who have got lots of potential, including two 16-year-olds, to win the cup in their first year.

“We have tried for many years to win this competition and doing it against a very good team in AFC Sudbury makes it all the more special.

“We were not disappointed with the way we started even though we conceded that early goal as we created reasonable opportunities and felt we should have equalised from one, but then we went 2-0 down and were up against it.

“It felt like a long way back from there, but we showed resilience and determination to get back into the game and on the balance of play we felt we could have won it.

“But for the width of the crossbar we would have gone 4-2 ahead, but they then got the penalty to equalise and take it to the penalty shoot-out.”

Sam Cox put AFC Sudbury ahead from close range after just four minutes, before skipper Stan Richardson headed in from a corner in the 29th minute.

Needham pulled one back just two minutes later, James Coton following up to net a rebound, and the introduction of Filip Zadlo gave Needham fresh impetus in the second period.

The tricky Polish winger restored parity on the hour, cutting inside Ollie Okeh before squeezing his shot inside the near post.

The turnaround was complete in the 72nd minute when Evan Gledhill’s 25-yard free-kick curling into the top corner to make it 3-2.

Zadlo struck the inside of the angle of post and crossbar in the 85th minute, before the Yellows equalised a minute later as Richardson confidently scored from the spot to force extra-time.