A GALLANT West Griffith went down 1-0 to Glenhaven in the under 18 final of the Champion of Champions in Blacktown yesterday.

Glenhaven's winner came with 20 minutes to go, Wests' hopes of finding an equaliser suffering a huge blow when Damon Mazzarolo was sent off for a second yellow card soon after.

Wests coach Rhys Jones said he couldn't have asked for any more from his players.

"I thought they were brilliant," he said.

"I thought we dominated from start to finish, but they (Glenhaven) got a chance and took it."

Jones, however, wasn't impressed with the conduct of Glenhaven's players.

"In my eyes they're probably the most disrespectful team I've ever come up against," he said.

"I thought their attitude stank.

"The referee was blowing his whistle every five minutes."

Compounding Jones's frustration was the referee's decision to wave away a penalty claim after Wests captain Steve Zalunardo was felled in the box.

"It was still nil-nil at that stage. If we get that, the game changes," Jones said.

"Their (Glenhaven's) guys were at it all game, whereas Damon makes two fouls and gets sent off.

"For me, it should've gone both ways."

Also raising Jones's ire was the quality of the playing surface.

"The pitch was dreadful. How they played a grand final on that I'll never know," he said.

"There were holes in the pitch everywhere

"I don't think you should be playing a grand final on that, but at the end of the day both teams had to play on it."

Despite yesterday's loss, Jones said Wests proved their quality throughout the tournament

"No one ever expects country teams to make the finals of these tournaments," he said.

"They don't even expect country teams to get to the semi-finals.

"We played a lot of good teams, but when the boys played football, I think we showed we're the best team in the competition.

"It's good for us because we had a lot of under 16s play Champion of Champions who held their own.

"That'll really help us build for the future."