Storm Brendan made result ‘a lottery’ claims Cooper
They netted their second soon after, with the Sabha defence looking for an offside flag which was never raised.
But they reacted well to the set-back, Hassan Mahmood thumping home a free-kick from 30-yards to make it 3-2.
This time their lead was shortlived as Beaconsfield again took advantage of some slack defence to equalise before dominating the final stages.
They made it 4-3 in controversial circumstances, with Sabha’s defence certain their player was in an offside position when he stroked the ball home. It led to a mass protest from the Sabha players and two of their number were sinbinned for dissent. Down to nine men it was no surprise to see Beaconsfield wrap up their win with a fifth in injury-time.
Sabha will look to bounce back at Iver Heath on Saturday in the quarter finals of the Slough Town Cup. The side are looking to defend the trophy they won last season.
Storm Brendan made last week’s defeat to Flackwell Heath ‘something of a lottery’ for Windsor boss Mark Cooper, but he’s confident the side can continue to make progress under his stewardship and start climbing the league once again.
Last week’s 3-0 home defeat to the Heathens, combined with the side not having a fixture at the weekend, has bumped the Royalists back down to 15th in the Hellenic Premier Division.
But Cooper is confident his now settled squad can get back on an unbeaten run, starting with this week’s home games against Brackley Town Saints (Saturday) and Reading City (Tuesday).
The Royalists were on a five game unbeaten run in all competitions – which included an impressive 1-1 draw with leaders Westfields at Stag Meadow – before Marcus Richardson’s men checked that progress on a windy night in Windsor.
“That game left me with huge frustration,” said Cooper.
“I don’t think it was an even game, I felt we were the better side. We were obviously the better side with the wind at our backs in the first half. We hit the bar and their keeper made a few good saves.
“We have a fantastic pitch at Stag Meadow but sometimes it works against you because you end up playing in really awful conditions. The wind last week had such a large part to play in the game and it made it more of a lottery than it would have been otherwise.”
On Saturday’s opponents Brackley Town, Cooper added: “They’re a very good passing team and they beat us by the odd goal a couple of months ago,” he said. “Reading City will be a different type of game, but we’ll look to pick up two wins from the two home games.
“Yeah, we’ve been on a pretty good run. We were five unbeaten and had a particularly pleasing performance against Westfields. That’s why the Flackwell game was so frustrating, because I don’t think we got up to the levels we had been in recent weeks. That said we deserved to preserve that unbeaten run.
“Now we’ve got a small squad of 16 players and we’re looking to add another one, hopefully before the weekend. We’ll work with the squad we’ve got. We think we can progress and push up this league.”