Olympic Kingsway and Perth SC win men’s and women’s State Cup finals respectively

Olympic Kingsway have continued their sterling season, adding the Men’s State Cup crown to their league title with a come-from-behind 3-2 win over a ten-man Perth RedStar at the Sam Kerr Football Centre.

It came after Perth SC had stunned RedStar in the women’s final to ruin their chances of a rare four-trophy season, with the Azzuri winning 4-1.

Fresh off their admirable 3-2 defeat to A-League Men’s side Adelaide United in the Australia Cup, Kingsway reinforced their status as the best team in the state as they recovered from a 2-0 deficit to beat RedStar.

On an emotional night for Olympic, with coach David Tough returning to the dugout following the passing of his mother, they fell behind inside the opening minute when Bryce Bafford found the net.

A few minutes later and Redstar doubled their lead through the ever-dangerous Daryl Nichol through a well-taken strike.

But Olympic hit back when Liam Reddy brought down Aryn Williams in the box up the other end and Joe Knowles converted the resultant spot-kick to make it 2-1 in the 25th minute.

And the game shifted dramatically when Nic Walsh dragged down Joe Hobson as the Kingsway forward raced to intercept a back pass, resulting in a straight red card.

It took Olympic just six minutes after the break to make their numerical advantage count, with substitute Luke Hewings finding the net to square the ledger.

Kingsway were in control but could not put the game to bed in regular time, and so onto extra-time they went, where Callum O’Connell made amends for his own-goal in the Australia Cup, finding the net with a header to seal a memorable comeback and his side’s second silverware of the season.

In the women’s final, it was RedStar who took the lead when Olivia Wood smashed home a half-volley from the edge of the box in the 16th minute in.

But two minutes later, Ruby Marshall leveled the scores after a nice one-two, although it was not until the second half Perth seized control of the game.

Golden boot winner Ella Lincoln profited off some nice work by Charli Wainwright with a little over 20 minutes to go, before Sam Mathers’ ‘Olimpico’ goal directly from a corner made it 3-1 shortly afterwards.

Wainwright then capped off a strong all-round performance with a fine finish in injury-time to seal the win.