Scorers : Alex Sawyer 9 & 64, Kevin Brewster 54 & 81 (pen), Rory Wood 35

Date : Tuesday 14 November 2017 7:45pm - Russell Cotes Cup Second Round

Venue : Universal Stadium

Sholing : Jamie Bray, TJ Cuthbertson, Owen Royl (Dan Mason 75), Owen Roundell, Duncan Brown, Kevin Brewster, Jean-Luc Ramdin, Byron Mason [c], Rory Wood, Alex Sawyer, Marv Mclean.  Subs not used : Dan Miller, Jamie Bulpitt, Pete Castle, Ryan Gosney

Yellow Card : 

Yellow Card :

Attendance : 102

Man of the Match : Alex Sawyer

Referee : Declan Hellyer  Assistants : Ant Cross & Alan Gower

Sholing strolled into the 3rd Round of the Russell Cotes Cup and extended our unbeaten run to 13 games with a comfortable win over Hampshire League side, Bush Hill.

Team News : Dave Diaper took the opportunity to rotate his 1st team squad and give starts to Jamie Bray, Rory Wood, Duncan Brown, Kev Brewster, Jean-Luc Ramdin and Alex Sawyer.

A surprisingly mild evening saw the game get underway on a pitch that thanks to the work of Trevor, had recovered pretty well after cutting up on Saturday.  Sholing had the first chance of the game after 3 mins when Kev Brewster's freekick was flicked goalwards by Owen Roundell, but Devereaux in the Bush Hill goal did well to palm it away.  ALEX SAWYER, who was pushed forward in support of Wood, opened the scoring on 9 minutes when he won the ball in midfield, advanced and from 22 yards fired a well struck and well placed shot, into the far corner.

Bush Hill had their first and best chance of the game on 19 minutes when ex-Sholing player, Cain Prentice was played into space on the right side of the area, but he put his effort wide.  To their credit, the visitors were playing the ball out from the back, although it was to cost them on 35 mins as Jean-Luc Ramdin closed down a defender, blocking his clearance, which fell nicely to RORY WOOD on the edge of the 6 yard box to steady himself and sidefoot past the keeper at the near post for his 4th goal in 5 games for the first team.   HT 2-0

Rory Wood almost doubled his account straight from the kick off when he connected with a ball from the right flank that he flicked past the keeper, but it came back off the far post.  With Marv on the left and TJ & Jean-Luc on the right, the wide positions continued to give the Boatmen lots of creativity and on 54 mins, after a run past two defenders, Marv's delivery went across the area and found KEV BREWSTER free in space and he coolly placed a shot high into the net.

Sholing got the 4th goal on 64 mins when after some interplay, it opened up inside the area for Rory Wood to shoot, the keeper blocked well, but the ball fell at the feet of ALEX SAWYER to slot into the empty net.   The Boatmen were playing almost exclusively in the Bush Hill half, the visitors didn't let their heads drop, but it was only a matter of time until Sholing scored again and on 81 minutes, Dan Mason, who had come off the bench, tried to flick the ball past his marker with the ball being adjudged by the referee to have struck the defender's hands.   KEV BREWSTER dispatched the penalty into the left corner for his 5th goal in 11 appearances.  There was time left for Sawyer to almost grab his hat-trick, but his curling and dipping shot from outside the box was brilliantly tipped over the bar by Devereaux. FT 5-0

Next Game : Sholing v AFC Portchester - Saturday 18 Nov 3pm - Wessex Premier