Scorers : Dan Miller 70

Date: Tuesday 20th November 2018 - 7:45pm - Hampshire Senior Cup 3rd Round - Sponsored by Regal Building Services

Venue: Victory Stadium, HMS Temeraire

Royal Navy FA: Margarson, Glendon, Thorpe, Eaton, Archibold, Benjamin, Earl, Kerr [c], Morgan, Saunders, McKechnie.  Subs : Parker, Craig, Cushion, Dawson, Brierley

Yellow Cards: Thorpe & Cushion

Sholing: Ryan Gosney, TJ Cuthbertson, Owen Royl, Owen Roundell, Dan Miller, Jamie Bulpitt, Jack Smith, Byron Mason [c], Dan Mason, Jake Hoole, Brad Targett.  Unused subs: Pete Castle, Kevin Brewster, Lee Wort, Marv McLean, Nick O'Donnell

Yellow Cards:

Attendance: 43 (approx 20 Sholing fans)

Referee: Anthony Cross  Assistants: Adrian Cook & Jack Hussey

Dan Miller's second half header put Sholing through to the Hampshire Senior Cup Quarter finals after a tough match against a very decent Royal Navy side.

Team News : Dave Diaper rotated his squad, resting Marv McLean, Lee Wort & Pete Castle, who were on the bench but always unlikely to feature. Alex Sawyer missed out through injury, but Brad Targett returned from suspension.  Owen Roundell marked his 150th appearance for the Boatmen.

On a very cold evening at a sparsely populated Victory Stadium, the Boatmen played THE Boatmen, the Royal Navy, for the very first time on a ground more reguarly used by United Services Portsmouth.   It was an even start to the game, but the Navy's number 7, Earl, was showing pace & trickery down the left wing to give TJ some early problems in defence.  First shot on target came from the home team when a well struck 30 yard effort was comfortably caught by Gosney.  Sholing's first good chance fell to Byron, but from a floated in freekick, his downward header went wide.  On 22 minutes, Hoole put a freekick round the wall, but the keeper pushed the ball past the post.   The hosts continued to look lively running with the ball and Gosney did well to palm a stinging angled shot over his crossbar.  HT 0-0

Dan Mason got in behind on 48 mins and tried to lift a bouncing ball over the advancing keeper, but the very tall, Margarson, managed to get a finger tip to it and push it up and then catch it.  The game remained very even, but competitive without over stepping the mark as both sides played decent football on a good slick surface.  Jake Hoole went on a long mazy run from one side of the area to the other before having his angled shot palmed over the angle of post & bar.  The Royal Navy were often getting into good positions in and around the Sholing area, but a combination of wayward shots, or delaying an effort on goal saw Gosney not overly worked.

The game very much felt like one goal would win it and it duely arrived on 70 minutes in Sholing's favour.  A right sided corner was put towards the far post where DAN MILLER towered over everyone to firmly head the ball back past the keeper and into the middle of the goal.  The Royal Navy pushed more men forward and made use of their 3 subs, but were finding the Sholing rear guard hard to breach. Dan Miller & Byron Mason won most balls put into the box either on the floor or in the air and Jack Smith did a good job of winning some battles in midfield and setting Sholing away on the counterattack.

This was possibly, a tougher than expected game for Sholing, against a team that doesn't play regular league football, and therefore are something of an unknown quantity.  I would imagine if this Royal Navy side played full time in the Wessex Premier, they'd comfortably be in the top 6 and I believe a couple of their players regularly feature for Portland United.  For Sholing, it was their 15th consecutive victory and 16th clean sheet of the season as this brilliant and very enjoyable run continues.  FT 0-1

Next Game :  Sholing v Horndean - Saturday 24th November 3pm - Wessex Premier