Silent Assassin Strikes.

On the good side was the result,the debut of the younger Hercules and Teddie Paul from our U-18 team, the determination not to be defeated. On the downside were the obvious cobwebs caused by this being only our 3rd game since Nov 25th and the general lack of quality in our play.

We decided to go long to try to put our opponents on the back foot but in fact this resulted in our being too stretched and Sarratt could well have taken the lead in the 5th minute when a cross shot went narrowly wide of the far post after good work by their centre forward.

On 8 mins another failure to close a player resulted in a long range shot which was spilled by debutant keeper Mark Richardson to be tapped in for an early lead for Sarratt. Within a couple of minutes our custodian redeemed himself with an excellent save from close range.

We shortened our game up but there was a general sense of rustiness with our opponents giving as good as they got. On 22 mins James Shaw missed a good chance when he scuffed a shot with his right foot before on 30 mins good work by Ryan McMahon resulted in a tidy Joe Naylor finish.

Our opponents wilted visibly and at the same we improved be it marginally and early in the second period Joe Naylor chased down a back pass forced on Sarratt by Tom Shaw and scored his second.

The game became stretched and Tom Shaw was released on several occasions to put in crosses which didn't always match the quality of the back pass. We put ourselves in danger by giving away a series of free kicks caused by a lack of shape off the ball and Mark Richardson made another good save down low on his left hand side before in the 88th minute Poalo Bagatti made a complete mess of a pass back only for their winger to blaze over.

Our opponents were doubly punished when from a decent bit of play from the back Joe Naylor, who is not 20 till March completed his hat trick with his 64th goal in 157 Senior appearances over 4 seasons ( much of which has been spent in midfield).

We now face Oxhey Jets away in the 1/4 Final on 27/01.

M.Richardson, P.Bagatti, L.Barkers-Obua, J.Butler, M.Bulpit, R.Mcmahon, J.Shaw (T.Paul), K.Goldberg (C.Connor), J.Naylor, O.Ruttle (F.Hercules), T.Shaw.

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