Cooper’s praise for 18-year-old Etukudo after debutant scores equaliser

New signing Ethan Etukudo rescued Windsor a share of the spoils against Holyport on Saturday, with the former Chertsey Town player scoring a brace on his debut in a 2-2 draw at Stag Meadow.

Daniel Rapley had gifted Port the lead on the half hour mark with a cool finish before the Royalists were back on level terms after the interval through Etukudo’s reply.

George Lock was able to put his side in the ascendancy again 10 minutes later, but the visitors’ likely victory was agonisingly snatched away from them in the final minute of added time.

Following the draw, Windsor stay in eighth while Holyport remain at the bottom of the Combined Counties Premier Division North.

“In the first half, they were the better side and that’s the frustration,” said Windsor boss Cooper earlier this week.

“After a very good performance last weekend, we went into the game expecting to build on that, but we didn’t. They deservedly went into the lead, and at half-time, lots was said about the unacceptable nature of the first half display.

“The second half was much better, and we should’ve gone 2-1 up. But instead of that, they went ahead again.

“We got ourselves on the ball and, eventually after wave after wave of attacking, we finally scored the equaliser in the 96th minute.”

Cooper, expectedly, handed praise to 18-year-old Etukudo, adding: “He’s a promising youngster. He’s been at Chertsey, and we’ve got a very good relationship with them.

“He wasn’t getting sufficient minutes over there, so we made an agreement for him to come to ours. For how long? We don’t know yet. But he’s got lots of ability and potential.

“It was a good debut for him – a good start to get two goals and help us towards a point.”

Windsor travel to Wembley this weekend for a league fixture. Kickoff is at 3pm.