The Cavalry charge continues

Cavalry took the lead midway through the first half with a rasping low drive by defender Greg Douglas, and sealed the win in the second half courtesy of great individual goals by Kris McLoughlin and Mark Scott.

Jason Dalgliesh, who operates alongside Cavalry head coach Kevin Douglas, was delighted at registering such an emphatic victory. He said: "I thought the lads did well, although Spartans put up a good fight. For a cup final, it's a good result, as these games are normally tight. We had to dig deep."

Douglas opened the scoring on 22 minutes in spectacular style, with a clean, bending strike from 25 yards that curled into the bottom left-hand corner beyond the grasp of Spartans goalie Craig Carter.

Spartans' best chance of the first half arrived when Joshua McCabe sent a lofted pass over the Cavalry defence to Paul Crolla, who attempted a shot from a tight angle that Cavalry goalkeeper Alan Andrews saved with relative ease.

Immediately after half time, Cavalry doubled their lead courtesy of a mesmerising piece of skill by McLoughlin. The big target man got on the end of a long pass forward, and with one deft touch he both cushioned the ball and turned towards goal, using the outside of his right foot to then beat Carter and send the ball into the net. Cavalry won the league by just two points over rivals Edinburgh City Colts, but were emphatic in many of their victories en route to the championship title. In 28 games, they notched 124 goals – 53 at home, and 71 away.

It was little surprise, then, that they added to their lead ten minutes from time against Spartans, the side who finished ninth in the league.

Mark Scott showed delightful control to "kill" a high ball on the outer left-hand corner of the penalty area, and skipped across the 18-yard line to assume a more central position before unleashing a strike into the bottom left-hand corner of Carter's goal. That gave his side a 3-0 lead and ensured Cavalry would claim a second trophy in what has been a successful season.

Coach Dalgliesh reflected on an enjoyable campaign for his club.

He said: "We had a brand new team at the start of the season – Cavalry Park had never run a team at this age group – but now we're looking forward to playing in Division 1. Our success this season, though, will be a tough act to follow.

"We really battled along the way, trying to establish ourselves as a team, but the laddies always put in 100 per cent."

Cavalry Park: Alan Andrews, Andrew Mackay, Chris Joyce, Lloyd Robertson, Greg Douglas, Christopher Brown, Mark Scott, Sean Guiney, Fraser Andrews, Mwiinga Mumbanga, Kris McLoughlin, Steven MacGregor, Lyle Finney, Michael Park, Jason Dalgliesh, Stewart Adams.

Spartans: Craig Carter, Sean Christie, Wilf Whitby, Jack McLuckie, Subhaan Ahmed, Ben McKinnon, Kerr Flannigan, Robbie Paterson, Rory McLean, Joshua McCabe, Paul Crolla, Darren Carter, Mark James, Denis Chakonda, Alasdair Fleming.