Blues dominate and go through to next round of Hampshire Senior Cup
Yateley United 0 Fleet Town 3. On a somewhat cooler evening than of late, Fleet Town returned to Yateley United only two weeks after they had been held to a 1-1 draw there in The League. This time the sides were meeting in the First Round of The Servio Hampshire Senior Cup and, once again, the travelling Fleet Town supporters heavily outnumbered the home ones.
Both teams used the Cup match as an opportunity to rotate their squads and rest a few injured players, but despite the changes both still put out very strong sides and Fleet were quickly into their stride.
It was The Blues who made all the early running, playing their usual fine brand of high-tempo football and moving the ball around well. Yateley were struggling to get any real foothold in the game as Fleet dominated possession and spent long periods camped inside the home side’s half.
Despite all their pressure, however, Fleet couldn’t quite find the breakthrough and, as half-time approached, it looked as though Yateley might somehow get to the interval without conceding. That changed right on 45 minutes when George Wallace’s fine cross caused chaos in the penalty area. The ball pin-balled around between several players before eventually falling to Shaq Johnson (pictured above), who applied the finishing touch to give Fleet a deserved lead at the perfect time.
The second half continued in a very similar vein to the first, with Fleet Town dominating possession and looking by far the more threatening side.
On 56 minutes the advantage was doubled. Danylo Hubynets, who had been skilfully leading the line with great energy throughout the evening, did well before crossing to Shaq Johnson, who calmly slotted the ball into the right corner to score his second goal of the night and put Fleet firmly in control.
The Fleet goalscoring didn’t stop there and on 75 minutes Hubynets got the goal his performance deserved. He reacted quickest to get on the end of a deflected cross before comfortably beating Henry Pigeon in the Yateley goal to make it 3-0.
With the result effectively settled, the remainder of the game finished fairly quietly. Fleet continued to look comfortable, with the defence dealing confidently with the few Yateley attacks that came their way. Behind them, Henry Grad had very little to trouble him and comfortably secured another clean sheet.
So another excellent performance from The Blues and a very convincing passage into the next round of The Hampshire Senior Cup.
Fleet now don’t have another game until the August Bank Holiday weekend, when they face two League games in three days. This little ‘mini break’ comes at a useful time after a very busy opening few weeks of the season and will give the lads the chance to recover from any knocks, get several good training sessions under their belts and prepare themselves before going again in The League and the various Cup competitions.
