Berks & Bucks Intermediate Cup
Round 1
Finchampstead 4 Hurst 1
Saturday, 05 October 2002
Finchampstead based match sponsor D & S Driveways & Patios brought several guests to watch the local derby Berks & Bucks Intermediate Cup match between Finchampstead and Hurst on Saturday and they were provided with top calibre entertainment from an excellent game of football, with the final 4-1 Finch victory not truly representing the closeness or competitiveness of the game.
Both sides set out their stall from the first whistle, playing some excellent passing football as the ball moved from end to end. In the second minute Finch defender Lee Goddard made an important blocking tackle to prevent Gary McVie getting a shot on goal after the lively Hurst winger evaded two defenders in a good run on goal, and a minute later at the other end, Bruce Rolls went close with a rasping shot that keeper Scott Mortimer did well to hold. Finch went in front in the eighteenth minute from a half cleared Danny Russell corner, Bruce Rolls picking up the loose ball on the edge of the penalty area before turning on a sixpence and drilling the ball hard and low past the diving Scott Mortimer into the bottom right corner of the goal. Hurst then gave the Finch defence a somewhat torrid time in a good spell of attacking football as they tried to quickly get back on level terms, with Gary McVie blasting high over the bar when through on goal in the twenty-fifth minute and Lee Goddard robbing Antony Smith just outside the six yard box before he could home in on goal. With Hurst still forcefully keeping up the pressure, Finch keeper Stuart Harris made a good save at the base of his left post to deny Steve Hazeldene on the half hour, but then Finch countered, and the five minute relentless assault on their goal came to an end.
In the thirty-fifth minute Scott Mortimer was the Hurst hero as he made a brilliant full-length save to finger-tip a powerful Bruce Rolls effort off his goal line, with Ben Seymour mopping up the loose ball and scrambling it away to safety before Danny Humphreys could get to it. In the thirty-eighth minute Scott Mortimer again denied Bruce Rolls with the save of the match as he raced off his line to make a point blank save from the troublesome Finch striker, who had jinked his way into the six yard box. Hurst had a chance to level matters five minutes from the break from a perfectly weighted Bill Seymour free-kick that dropped at the feet of the unmarked Gary McVie, but luckily for Finch he again blasted high and wide of the target with just Stuart Harris to beat.
Half Time: 1-0
Hurst piled on the pressure at the start of the second half, winning a succession of corners in the opening eight minutes before they at last deservedly equalised with a Steve Hazeldene strike that flew through a packed six yard box past the unsighted Stuart Harris. However Hurst?s jubilation turned to remorse a minute later when they paid the penalty for slack defending, allowing Finch to regain a slender 2-1 lead. With Finch pressing forward in a good flowing move, the otherwise faultless Scott Mortimer just failed to connect with a lunging back-pass, allowing Danny Humphreys to nip in and sail past him to stroke the ball into the empty net. From then on, with their tails up, Finch had far more of the play, moving the ball around well in the middle of the park and creating good chances for the front players. Jeremy Lynch was guilty of the miss of the day, striking the ball into the side netting from a yard out with an open goal at his mercy, but it was not long before Finch cashed in on their sudden supremacy by scoring two further goals to put their second round place beyond doubt.
Skilful ball control and an excellent finish by Jamie McClurg made it 3-1 in the seventy-third minute after he was put through towards goal by equally clever play by Bruce Rolls. Then two minutes later a good run down the left wing by Martin Turner ended with a well placed cross to the far post that was planted into the back of the net by Davyd Bowden to make it 4-1. In the eighty-fifth minute Danny McCarthy, Davyd Bowden and Bruce Rolls linked well through the middle of the park to the edge of the Hurst penalty area to set up the chance of another goal, but the latter?s delicate chip over the goalkeeper shaved the crossbar and dropped onto the roof of the net. To their credit Hurst never gave up trying and had a late burst of their own in an effort to put justified respectability on the final scoreline, but the well marshalled Finch defence gave them no chance of getting beyond the fringe of the penalty area, thwarting Robbie Wright?s good runs down the right flank and Mark Boshar?s challenging moves through midfield.
Finchampstead continue in cup mode this coming week, firstly on Tuesday night entertaining Gloucester club Harrow Hill in the first round of the Hellenic Football League Floodlit Cup at Hartley Wintney Football Club, kick-off 7.30pm. Then on Saturday they travel to neighbours Binfield in the first round of the Hellenic Football League Challenge Cup, with a 2.30pm kick-off.
Finchampstead: Harris, Clarke, Goddard, Prentice, Pearce, Lynch, Russell, Burt, Humphreys, Rolls, Turner. Subs used: Bowden, McCarthy, McClurg.
Hurst: Mortimer, B Seymour, Phillips, Boshar, Buckley, W Seymour, Wright, Hazeldene, Smith, Tuffee, McVie Subs used: Sugars, Pattenden, Pitt
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