READING EVENING POST SENIOR CUP

2nd Round 

UNITED SCRAPE THROUGH

MARLOW UNITED - 1 FINCHAMPSTEAD - 1

(United win 4-1 on penalties)

 If United are to make a fifth appearance at the  Madejski Stadium  then this performance has to be greatly improved upon. Up against a Finchampstead team determined to upset last seasons finalists United failed to turn early and late superiority into goals. 

United started yet another midweek match with a much changed team from Saturday's excellent 2-1 win over Binfield. Missing Sepede and Davis through injury they worryingly had to take off Wiltshire, Pedley and Heywood all suffering from similar problems and this perhaps was the main reason United failed to reach the heights that they are capable of. One player with a smile at the end however was goalkeeper Tony Cooper who made no less than two penalty saves in the shoot out and was the hero of the evening.

United began brightly enough with debutant Lewis Brown linking well with Ollie Flint and produced enough to demonstrate that given time he could make an impact at this level.

A goal from Ollie Flint on 43 minutes was cancelled out by Finchampstead in the 79th minutes as they threatened to knock the finalists of the two previous seasons out of the competition. Extra time bough controversy as Ross Middleton appeared to have ended proceedings with what looked a good 'goal' but but was judged to have pushed a defender on his way to curling the ball into the back of the Finchampstead net. However Finchampstead hung on to a shock draw but quickly fell in the penalty shootout as the excellent Tony Cooper saved two and this was equaled by 4 smartly taken United penalties to keep United's dream of a return to the Madejski very much alive.

 1) A Cooper        8 Hero of the night

2) B Filmore         7 Steady performance from Ben

3) D Prasol           7 Consistent

4) M Flint               7 Not as influential as usual

5) T Heywood       6 Dominant until injury

6) R Middleton      7 Welcome and influential return

7) M Sciaraffa       7 Good defensive performance

8) D Pedley          7 Average but struggled with injury

9) L Brown            6 Promising debut

10) G Wiltshire     6 Difficult night for Gazza injured

11) O Flint             7 Growing into a first team regular

 Subs

V Cuva                  7 Made a considerable impact  

S Gabb                   6 Contributed

A West                   6 Worked hard

  MOM

Tony Cooper