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Marine beat City of Liverpool to retain Liverpool Senior Cup

Marine AFC retained their Liverpool Senior Cup crown with a 2-0 win over City of Liverpool thanks to goals from Finlay Sinclair-Smith and Sol Solomon.

Marine and City of Liverpool moved away from their respective playoff pushes in the Northern Premier League and West Division to battle for the county cup competition.

The Mariners secured their top five place at the weekend after a comprehensive 4-0 win over already-relegated Atherton Collieries.

For Paul McNally's side, the clash against their Crosby rivals was the first of two massive matches for the Purps this week as they host Witton Albion in their playoff showdown on Saturday where they must avoid defeat to secure their place in the playoffs.

The Mariners were in front after just seven minutes when Sinclair-Smith's spot-kick nestled into the bottom left corner after veteran forward Bobby Grant was brought down. Neil Young's side had to wait until ten minutes from time as the Jersey attacker acrobatically doubled their lead.

Both Solomon and Sinclair-Smith have been standout performers for Marine this season and the Rossett Park faithful will be wondering how much longer they can keep ahold of two of their star players after a sparkling campaign for the Northern Premier Division promotion hopefuls.

The strike partners have amassed 49 goals between them and added to their tally to help Marine win a successive Senior Cup - after their penalty shootout triumph over Runcorn Linnets, last year.

The Northern Premier League West outfit showed glimpses of quality and grew into the contest. Elliot Morris rifled home into the roof of the net but was adjudged to have strayed offside, while Simon Wills saw his goalbound effort blocked by a teammate. The Purps could feel aggrieved that they did not have a penalty in the first-half after Adam Rooney was hauled down.

However, they were fortunate to find themselves a goal down at the break after Grant squirmed an effort over the bar from close-range.

The second-half brought little excitement with both sides having sights on goal without threatening either goalkeeper, Marine captain Josh Wardle rifled an effort wide of the post while Ismhael Sonko rifled an effort wide of the post late on.

But Marine etched their name on the illustrious Liverpool Senior Cup for a ninth time with a moment of quality from Solomon.

In hindsight, both sides have more important matters to attend to with crucial matches on the horizon but it was Marine who earned bragging rights over City of Liverpool, extending their winning run to five over their local rivals. Marine's quality showed in front of a packed Marine Travel Arena as 1,898 were in attendance to avoid an upset.