Sunday saw us comfortably progress through to next round of the Senior Cup at the expense of division three side AXA Monarchs.
AXA were a well organised side and certainly came to give a good account of themselves. As you would expect they did their best to close us down quickly in the opening period but we managed to move the ball well enough to create the space that we needed. We were managing to get behind them reasonably well and it was no real surprise when we took the lead on 14 minutes, Matt Lawrence winning the ball in midfield and setting Chris Mearing free to round the keeper and slot home. The second followed on 23 minutes when Gunny Boorman intercepted an AXA pass and found Mearing on the edge of their box. This time he hit a well struck shot to the keepers right. A minute later the game was over as a contest and Mearing had completed his hat-trick. Lawrence again won the ball in midfield and found Peter Bukovec on the right. His flighted ball over the top of their defence found Mearing whose pace again took him clear and he calmly chipped the keeper.
The fourth goal came within four minutes of the start of the second half. Mearing broke down the right and found Mark Lester on the edge of their box, his well struck shot was met by the on rushing Danny McGahan who side footed home. The remainder of the half saw us to continue to dominate but a combination of poor finishing and some very good goalkeeping restricted our score to four. AXA did manage to pull a consolation goal back on the hour with a great shot from well outside the box.
A tough test awaits in the next round with a trip to Dormansland.
Team:
L.Baker
M.Wood
M. Boorman
A.Lindsey
I.Ward
P. Bukovec
M.Lawrence
M. Lester
D. McGahan
M. Millins
C. Mearing
Subs.
L. Gent (for Millins)
G. Manser (for Lawrence)