Boro spot on to lift Cup
FARNBOROUGH picked up their first silverware of the season after they were crowned Hampshire Senior Cup champions.
Controversially hosted at Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium, a muchchanged Farnborough side took on an equally rotated Spitfires XI that were led on the night by head of academy Luke Hardy.
In an action-packed game, Farnborough opened the scoring on 22 minutes when a Terrell Egbri corner was cleared as far as winger Selim Saied, who stabbed the ball home at the second time of asking.
Both goalkeepers were kept busy throughout the night with Boro’s Dante Baptiste facing 11 shots and Eastleigh’s Ross Flitney weathering 21 attempts on his goal.
Farnborough doubled their advantage on 75 minutes as Michael Fernandes robbed Seung-Woo Yang of possession inside his own half and set Mitchell Parker one-on-one with Flitney to find the bottom corner.
The Spitfires were awarded a penalty on 78 minutes when full-back Rob Howard caught Lyle Simpson inside the box. Simpson sent Baptiste the wrong way from the spot to reduce the arrears.
And the game was tied just two minutes later. Eastleigh left-back Cade Dyer whipped in a free-kick for the unmarked Tom Bragg to head home from close range.
An attendance of 914 were then witness to a penalty shoot-out to decide the fate of the cup.
Dan Smith was the only Eastleigh goalscorer from the spot, with Simpson seeing his effort saved by Baptiste before Dyer struck the woodwork.
Elliott Buchanan, Parker and Paul Hodges all took successful spotkicks, which left Louie Paget to win the shoot-out for Boro and claim the Hampshire Senior Cup trophy.
Speaking after the win, Farnborough manager Spencer Day said: “I’m pleased for the fans that turned up, I’m pleased we won. It’s nice to win. I thought we thoroughly deserved to win. We nearly made a right mess of it. I was speaking to the Eastleigh manager [Lee Bradbury] before and was saying what a great occasion this could have been and should have been.
“We’d love to put our first team out against their first team but it was what it was.
“A couple of people really stood out. We’re pleased we won it but let’s get on with the real business now.”
On Saturday, a different Farnborough XI took to the field at home to third-placed Hayes & Yeading United in a tense clash at the top of the Southern League Premier South table.
A tight game saw few opportunities for either side over the course of the 90 minutes.
Hayes & Yeading United’s only troubling shot of the game came on 36 minutes, with striker Moses Emmanuel forcing a low save from goalkeeper Jack Turner.
Boro remained resolute throughout the game and nearly got their reward in the third minute of stoppage time. Visiting goalkeeper Ravan Constable mis-kicked his clearance, which fell to substitute David Pratt but the striker could only hit the ball against Constable’s legs as the two sides finished 0-0.
This week Farnborough head to Devon tonight (Wednesday) to take on Tiverton Town, before hosting Poole Town on Saturday afternoon. Kick-off at 3pm.
HARTLEY Wintney turned the Southern League Premier South form book upside down with a 2-0 win in Devon against Tiverton Town. Tiverton were in fine form with five wins out of their last six matches, while the Row had not recorded a point on their travels during 2022. Tiverton started the better side as the Hartley Wintney goal came