23/10/11 – Garswood D 8-4 Earlestown A
Garswood welcomed their Division 3 opponents to Birch Grove for their 1st round challenge cup tie with both sides flying high in their respective divisions.
The visitors started the game strongly and went into a 2-0 lead within ten minutes, but Garswood bounced back strongly with Mattias slotting home from close range followed by a smart finish from Ryan Eden meaning the match was all square at the interval. Garswood started to play their trademark passing game in the 2nd half and Ryan Eden soon put the hosts 3-2 up. Mattias Lokuta then scored from a short corner routine with a superb finish after clever work from James Haswell and Nathan Moore, but Earlestown kept plugging away and got their reward as they made it 4-3 minutes later. Garswood then produced a dazzling 15 minutes of pass and move football as Nathan Moore scored with a superb finish, and Liam Hilton scored a superb quick fire hat-trick (reminiscent of Robbie Fowlers V Arsenal) to take his tally for the season to 9 goals. To their credit Earlestown kept plugging away and got a consolation goal near the end with a well taken free kick into the top corner. Garswood now go into the second round of the cup on the back of a 7 match unbeaten run
Team – C McCall, L Dixon, C Ashurst, C Guerin, J Aspey, M Lokuta, N Moore (capt), J Haswell, R Eden, L Hilton, B Berry – Subs – O Roberts, C Davies, M Marsh, B Wilson
Scorers – M Lokuta (2), N Moore, R Eden (2), L Hilton (3)
Man of the Match – M Lokuta – Midfield dynamo – won tackles & headers all day long against much bigger opponents and scored a fantastic goal.
