Our Under 18’s progressed to the next round of the FA Cup after beating the highly fancied Salisbury City in a game that had everything :- Goals, Bookings, Extra time, Controversial sending off’s, Penalties and the most bizarre penalty award ever seen at Hurn Bridge!

The game began at a frenetic pace which wasn’t to slacken off throughout the evening. Church began to exert strong pressure upon their opponents with their slick passing and movement and created numerous chances which accumulated with a stunning goal when Jacques Bernard unleashed a 25yard thunderbolt which nestled in the top corner of the net. 1-0.

The cheer’s hadn’t even begun to die down when Salisbury equalised when their no10 turned Churchs centre back and curled in an excellent shot which beat Gareth Hicks all ends up. 1-1 Game on!
But then the 1st controversial incident occurred when 2 players went in for a 50/50 challenge and the referee instantly brandishing the red card to Sam Griffin, much to the chagrin of the crowd but this very harsh decision spurred on Church who went on to control the game and began to pepper the Salisbury goal only to be thwarted by some fine saves. But then after 58 mins skipper Jacques Bernard notched his 2nd goal with a 25yard daisycutter which left the keeper well beaten.

The next controversial decision occurred when a Salisbury player received 2 yellow cards in less than 30seconds 1 for dissent and the other for an innocuous challenge.

Church looked to be on their way to a deserved victory when after 4mins added on time the most bizarre decision ever witnessed at Hurn Bridge occurred, a long free kick was launched into the Xchurch box where an unmarked Salisbury player punched the ball towards the goal which the keeper collected and cleared downfield but the assistant referee raised his flag and informed the ref that it was a xchurch player that had punched the ball! Salisbury could not believe their luck ( not one player or their bench had appealed which should have told the linesman what a mistake he had made!). The penalty was dispatched to take the tie into extra time which saw Karl James head a harmless looking cross into his own net 2-3.

Xchurch then laid siege to the Salisbury goal and were rewarded with an equaliser from sub Brad Hill who fired high into the net 3-3 and take the game to penalties where Gareth Hicks saved one and Xchurch scoring all 5 with Jacques Bernard fittingly converting the last penalty to win the tie and the man of the match award.

A superb effort from our youngsters who kept their cool throughout the whole evening and conducted themselves with style.

Report by churchman
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