BU16 Coyotes 3 - 1 Cambridge City BU16 (A)

Surbiton BU16 Coyotes reached the fourth round of the T1 Cup after wins against Old Loughts (R3), a bye (R2), and Old Georgians (R1). The draw saw us given an away fixture at Cambridge City to be played at the fabulously appointed university grounds.

We had played Cambridge City earlier in the season in a friendly fixture where we comfortably beat a side missing their best players. The cup fixture, however, pitted two full-strength teams eager to make it to the final stages of the competition.

Surbiton had the better of the early exchanges without creating too many clear-cut chances. We squandered our early penalty corners, but after some clear direction from Coach Holly, the team executed a previously practiced routine. The injection to Bennett was shifted right to Stoney to trap. Duggan then shot into the far-left corner to open the scoring on 16 minutes.

Ten minutes later we doubled our advantage after Lars found Duggan in the right channel. Duggan drove along the baseline and pulled the ball back to Stoney who was able to thread his shot through a wall of bodies and find the bottom left corner of the goal. 

There was no more scoring in the half, but we were able to extend our lead further early after the restart with the pick of the goals. It came from a penalty corner routine that went awry with the ball squirting out to Fitchy on the 23-metre line. He then drove into the top right of the circle and lashed a powerful shot across the goal to leave the keeper with no chance. 

At the 3-0, the game felt safe, but that was threatened by a goal from Cambridge City from a penalty corner. The initial shot was well saved only for the rebound to fall kindly to our opponents who tucked it passed Matt in goal.

Whilst Cambridge City were emboldened by drawing a goal back, neither side threatened the score sheet for the remainder of the match, with Surbiton running out 3-1 winners and securing a place in the next round.