Rushen United were the inaugural winners of the John Atkinson Memorial Trophy, defeating Colby 3-2 at the stadium, Castletown on Wednesday night.

After an uneventful goal-less first half, Rushen opened the scoring on the 57th minute. Some good work from Neil Curphey down the right flank forced goalkeeper Christian Steriopulos to come off his line to commit, the Rushen player crossed for Aaron Hawley to head home against his former club.

Not to be outdone, Colby equalised two minutes later, Duncan Miller’s corner picked out James Cain to power head home to make it 1-1. After 65 minutes, Colby took the lead for the first time. Colby Striker Sam Renshaw put Rushen defender Nigel Cottier, forcing him to steer into his own nets.

This was a tense time for Rushen as they had to weather a storm as the game was played at a much faster tempo. The trophy looked it was heading towards Glen Road until the 85th minute. Stephen Riding whipped in a cross from the left, falling nicely to Jack Saxon who steered his effort past Steriopulos.

Rushen pressed home the advantage and scored the winner into injury time. The Glen Road outfit didn’t deal with the danger following a throw-in deep in their own half, from the resulting melee, Curphey flashed his effort across the six yard box, Andrew Moody was lurking unmarked at the far post to crash home the winner.

A few of the Colby players sunk to the floor and a minute later referee Chris Taggart blew for full-time, leaving Rushen’s captain Paul Jones to the hold the trophy aloft.