Clease nets four in Loco cup rout

James Clease was the Man-of-the-match on Sunday as Ferndown Locomotive ran out 7-1 winners in the Robbins Cup on Sunday against New Milton Borough.  Other goals were scored by Paul Cashmore, Matthew Webb and Chris Hopkins.

Loco started the game with Kris is goal, and a back-four of Dean Grice, Neil Dall, Matthew Webb and Chris Hopkins.  In midfield we had a line-up of Paul Cashmore and Dan Carr in the middle, with Jonny Haines on the right and Sam Davis on the left.  This left Rik Watkins and James Clease up front; with a strong bench of Luke Mellor, Andy Smith and Keith Jackson.

The match at Slades Farm started very cautiousy for Loco, however we soon got into our stride, and we made a number of decent attacks on the Division Eight side.  After about fifteen minutes, Ferndown eventually took the lead, and it came from the left side, when some good play from Chris Hopkins enabled Webby to get a hold of the ball on the left apex of the penalty area and he then unleashed a fierce right footed drive towards the far stick, and the shot took a touch but nestled nicely in the corner to make it 1-0 to Loco.

1-0 quickly became 2-0 after 20 minutes, and it came from an unlikely source, as Chris Hopkins managed to intercept a lose defensive ball, and in one movement, he nicked the ball away from the oncoming defender, took a touch, and then rasped a left footed strike into the lower corner of the net to make it 2-0 -  a great goal.

Loco saw out the half quite easily.  Although the other side had a few attacks upfield, the Loco defence were particularly staunch, with Gricey and Dall unstoppable, and Webby and Chris Hopkins combining well too on the left half.

Half-time: New Milton Borough 0 - 2 Ferndown Locomotive

In the second half Loco were more in control of the game, and that was reflected in the number of goals we scored.  We were against the wind, but this helped us do extremely well - the midfield were hugely dynamic, and we were getting a lot of success on both sides of the pitch.  We did concede one goal early on, on New Miltons only attack of the half, however we did get five goals to counter this one blip…

Four of these goals came from James Clease, and good goals they were two.  The first of them saw the big target-man reacting quickly after a shot came in which the keeper couldn’t handle - a nice side-footed finish.

Soon after Mellor and Smith were introduced, Clease was again on the scoresheet after some interesting penalty-box pinball - everyone was having a crack, Mellor, the instrumental Dan Carr, Mr Haines, and also the newly introduced Keith Jackson, but it was James who netted, as his shot cannoned off the bar and over the line.

His third was a penalty, which was won after a shot from close range was handled over the bar by the Borough defender, and Clease stepped up to stroke the ball home and complete a really good hattrick.

And his fourth again was pretty impressive, when an outswinging cross-come-shot from the left was headed in the corner of the net by a jubilant Westcountry man - who got off the ground to not only come to realisation that he not only had scored four goals.. it also was not a dream either!

Sandwiched in between this multitude of goals was another corker, this time, scored by player/manager Paul Cashmore.  It came after some good pressure on the right led to a Loco corner, and it was a delightful Jonny Haines cross which met the head of Cash at the far stick, who bulletted the ball home from close range - a cracking demonstration of heading technique if we ever needed one.

Truth be told, more goals should have came in this fixture, Mellor went close with a neat turn and shot which the keeper parried, Sam had a cross-come-shot from the left which the keeper managed to palm over, Dan had a few cracks, Keith himself got in on the action.. everyone indeed had the taste for it.

However, seven was enough, and it was a solid performance against a lowly side - things will definitely get harder, so there is most definitely no comfort zone to fall into next Sunday.

Full-time: New Milton Borough 1 - 7 Ferndown Locomotive