Southam sat back and were forced to defend for large parts of the first half. Cardinal Newman missed a host of chances following a number of corners with a number of good blocks from Louis, Addison and Ben. Cardinal Newman did eventually equalise after a free kick was saved by Oz before the rebound was tapped in. Southam were fortunate to go in to half time level after Cardinal Newman hit the woodwork 3 times after they had scored. They also had a goal disallowed with the last kick of the half after the ball had gone out of play!

Southam kicked off the second half knowing they had to step their game up and improve on ball retention. We took the lead again through a long distance Lennon strike after good hold up play from Rob. Within a minute from kick off Lennon thought he had his hat trick with his volley bouncing out off the underside of the crossbar. Southam continued to press and force defensive errors. Lennon did eventually get his hat trick with 10 minutes left, good work from George M and Oscar allowed Cam to play a good pass to Lennon to turn and shoot from 25 yards into the top corner. 3-1 Southam with 10 minutes left. All that was left to do was see out the game. But within 3 minutes we conceded a penalty which was converted to set up a tense last 7 minutes. With 4 minutes left Riley broke away into the corner and was fouled in the box to give us chance to double our lead from the penalty spot. Unfortunately, this was missed and a nervy 2 minutes followed. Good defending from Oscar, George, Fin and Louis ensured that Cardinal Newman didn’t score and progressed into the next round with a 3-2 win.

Plenty to work on but it is always nice to win in the Cup. Next week sees a friendly against AGS before round 2 of the cup against Higham Lane.

Man of the match: Lennon for a hat trick on debut with all 3 goals outside the box!

Well done Gents.

Mr Turton