Falcons swoop to claim cup shock

After comprehensively dispatching of Boscombe Celtic in the previous round, Ferndown Locomotive were up against Falcons on Sunday - a new side in Sunday league football who were in a lower division, and who are looking to be moving up the diviional tables as quick as they can.

The game started with trusty Kris Legg in goal, and a defensive four of Matthew Webb, Big Jim, Mat Robinson and Neil Dall.  In midfield we had Sam, Andy, Dave, and Keith; leaving Jonny and James to lead the line.  Ali and Jimmy were named substitutes.

From the off, it was clear that the Falcons were going to be a difficult team to play.  Although the standard of football wasn’t great (from both sides), the communication between the away team was much better than that of the Ferndown massive…  indeed, the Falcons carved out a number of early opportunities, however the awareness of Kris, mixed with the persistance of the Loco defence, meant that things were pretty much water tight.

Ferndown didn’t really fashion many first half chances.  Andy had a lot of the ball down the right flank, and together with the centre-midfield two, he was combining well with them and Jonny - however, despite the dominance on this side of the pitch, we rarely got a shot on goal!

Falcons meanwhile were pretty strong, were chasing the ball down, and were shamefully winning a large percentage of headers in the middle of the park - and this was probably our downfall - they were first to the first and second ball, and this gave them license to pick out some pretty crisp passes to their strikers, who had chances, but just didn’t convert.

Half-time: Ferndown Locomotive 0 - 0 Falcons

Just after half time Sam came off and was replaced by Ali, and soon after Jimmy Redford came on for Matt Webb.  The game continued in a similar vein to the frist half, with a lot of action in the middle third of the pitch, but no real outcome!

We had a few chances, with Jonny and James looking to penetrate, but the eventual goal came from the other team - and it occured on 60 minutes, when their striker nipped in to notch the first goal of the game, much to the despair of the eleven players on the pitch wearing red and black.

Indeed, if you speak to a Falcons player, you may have well thought there were twelve home players at King George, as often, they seemed to question the abilities of the ref, and this was only compunded on 75 minutes, when Loco were awarded a penalty when Jonny Haines was felled in the box and rolled to the floor like a sack of excrement.

Given his sptirelyness, you’d have thought that the young lad would have got up to slot it home, but it was actually Jimmy Redford who opted to step forward for the kick - and he powered it home down the middle of the goal in no uncertain terms, and Loco were back in the game at 1-1.

So with the game nicely poised, and surely a potential winner on the cards, which way would it fall?  Well, to cut a lon story short, it was Falcons who got it.  A great move by the midfield enabled their nippy winger to get a bit of space on the right, and he managed to feed through a nice sqare pass to his team-mate, who could do nothing but caress the ball home into an empty goal.

With 3 minutes to go there was a brief showing of some “Cash Leg”, as he took of his kit to give the team a boost in the final stags - however, even this didn’t materialise, as the whistle blew, and Loco found themselves dumped out of the cup by lower league opposition for the first time in a very very long while.

Final Score: Ferndown Locomotive 1 - 2 Falcons