2024 King's Cup Final

The **2024 King's Cup Final** was the final match of the 2023-24 King's Cup tournament. It was played at National Stadium in London on June 5, 2024, between Norwich United and North London FC.

Norwich United won the match 2-1 on penalties for their first-ever King's Cup title. North London striker Kyle Hughes scored the opening goal just 10 minutes in. Young Norwich winger Austin Allen would score the only other goal in the match, drawing level in the 85th minute. Norwich scored 4 out of their 5 penalty shots, with goalkeeper Alex Wilkes making two key saves to deny North London the victory. Jamie Cooper would be the one to score the winner after Kyle Hughes' attempt was stopped.

## Background

The 2024 King's Cup Final was heavily anticipated by fans mostly due to the interesting cast of players participating in the match. On paper, the two clubs were vastly different in terms of quality. North London FC were the hands-down favorites going in, as they had just finished 5th in the league and were coming off a decisive win against defending King's Cup champions, the Manchester Marauders. On the other hand, Norwich United were fighting to avoid relegation.

Norwich United were the fan favorites, as they were on the ultimate Cinderella run in this year's campaign. The arrival of loan player Jamie Cooper proved to be the spark that lit the flame for this young club. In just his second match for the club, Jamie helped Norwich beat a much stronger side in the Round of 16, as Norwich upset the 3rd placed Merseyside Mariners 3-1. Their quarter-final matchup was another very tough one, as they were now up against the 2nd placed AFC Birmingham. They kept their momentum rolling, picking up a 3-2 victory. At this time, Jamie Cooper was playing extremely well. This was heavily motivated by the fact that he wanted to beat the team that sent him on loan, North London FC. When he saw they had advanced to the final, he was determined to get his team there too. Norwich shut down the Blackpool Knights 1-0 to advance to their first King's Cup final in over 40 years.

North London FC had been on a bit of a run themselves, as they had defeated their rivals Manchester in the semi-final. Star striker Kyle Hughes, had his own source of motivation, which was to beat Jamie. The young talent was upset that everyone was so focused on Jamie and not him. There were also some personal issues between the two, involving Kyle's girlfriend and Jamie's childhood friend, Jess Ashwood. With these two young superstars on a collision course, the stage was set for a dramatic night. The off-pitch theatrics and storylines surrounding this match were so intriguing that the entire country just had to tune in to what would be an incredible match.

## Match

### First Half

Very early on, it became apparent that the rivalry between Jamie Cooper and Kyle Hughes was going to get in the way of the match. The two exchanged some words before the match started, and needed to be separated by teammates. In the first ten minutes, North London came out flying. Manager John Hewitt employed a high-press tactic to start, a strategy that had worked very well for North London so far. In the tenth minute, Kyle Hughes found the back of the net off of a solo rush through the Norwich defense. He made the young and inexperience back four look silly with his quick moves and expert finishing. Hughes notably celebrated his goal by making a 'shushing' gesture towards Jamie Cooper. The high-press did not stop there however, as North London held the ball within 30 yards of Norwich's goal for another 10 minutes. Norwich goalkeeper Alex Wilkes magically kept his team in it, making a total of 9 saves in those 10 minutes. Norwich could never break into the North London half for the entirety of the remaining 25 minutes, except for one attacking rush led by Jamie Cooper that ended in a shot by Elijah Kingsley that was stopped by North London goalkeeper Zachary Tomlinson. North London had a few more chances before the half ended. Kyle Hughes sent a shot from outside the box just over the bar, midfielder Corey Nwosu nearly missed the net off of a corner chance, and a Roman Sczenlovsky header was stopped by Wilkes.