Eaton had a mountain to climb this week facing Division one's Hockering in the Ben Smith Memorial cup with eight players unavailable.

Eight players unavailable this week after picking up three injuries in last weekends victory against Vikings reserves. Jordan Rial, Jake Reeves and Danny Bonura all left the pitch injured in our last game and all three miss out for this game against Hockering. Matthew Self and Will Ringwood both picked up a bug keeping them out of the squad. Tom Quinton and Oscar Millbank miss out due to work commitments. Ryan Smith still isn't quite ready to return yet but Sam Mclaughlin, Bradley Cullum and Tarren Denton all shook off knocks to return to the squad. Our young star boys Robbie Ashwell and Jack Soffe are included this weekend, Jack makes his first start as an Eaton Wanderer player after coming off the bench three times already this season. Another man making his long awaited Eaton debut was Luke Hall, Luke comes straight into the starting eleven.

The game kicked off with a high intensity from the off with both teams pumped and ready to go. The first half chance of the game came to the 16 year old Jack Soffe when a ball was played in behind for him but the young attacker couldn't quite get a touch on the ball and the keeper found the ball in his hands. Hockering nearly had the ball in the net when a long ball forward was headed back by Sam Mclaughlin, wrong footing Mikey Ward who had to back pedal and just managed to keep the ball out of the net, clattering the post in the process. Hockering took the lead when a few underhit clearances saw the ball fall to one of their players in the box who rifled it past Mikey from inside the box. Eaton didnt let that goal rock them though and after some good build up down the left, Luke Hall took on three Hockering players and laid the ball to Aron Norris who smashed the ball past the keeper just before half time.

The games intensity didn't drop in the second half and was back and forth with both teams creating their fair share of chances. Hockering took the lead again midway through the half when their fantastic number eight scored from a set piece. Hockering looked to be going into the next round of the cup until Stephen Blake decided it was time to upset "The Hock". A ball forward was chested out wide by Eaton's captain for the day Blake, Tarren Denton kept the ball in out wide and whipped a beautiful ball into the box for Stevie to bury into the net with a sublime diving header on the 90th minute sending the game into a penalty shootout.

The shootout commenced with all of the first five takers from both teams scoring. Sudden Death. Luke Hall stepped up on his debut and rattled the bar, the ball bouncing down extremely close to the line but was deemed to not cross the line. The Hockering player stepped up to take his penalty, a goal would send them through but a really poor penalty was saved by Ward. Norris took the next pen for Eaton, scoring for the second time on the day. Hockering's number 10 stepped up who in fairness had been one of the better players throughout the day. He struck the ball well but Mikey Ward got a strong hand to it and sent the boys through.

The Yellaphants played really well, defending resolutely making it tough for Hockering all game and scalping the side two leagues above them. A good game ending in a draw but karma coming into play for the penalty shootout after the Hockering management spent most of the game abusing the referee, Eaton's 16 year old linesmen and giving it large for 90 minutes. YOU LOVE TO SEE IT!

Garden House Man of the Match
Michael Ward. Our number one made some good crucial saves in regular time and then saved two of the six penalties, getting his hands to a couple more. Fantastic goalkeeping performance and hero of the hour.

Starting XI
M. Ward, D. Duchossoir, S. Mclaughlin, S. Blake, J. Barber, E. Daynes, B. Cullum, T. Denton, L. Hall, A. Norris, J. Soffe Subs: C. Enver, R. Ashwell.