MANAGER Jon Laugharne heaped praise on his patched-up Finchampstead side after they lost 2-1 to Highmoor Ibis in the Reading Senior Cup on Monday, writes Dave Wright.

The Hellenic Division One East outfit recovered from conceding a goal inside the opening 20 seconds and pushed their Premier Division rivals right until the final whistle.

“It was brave effort from us; I thought we were excellent,” said Laugharne.

“We had lads out there who hadn’t played for us for a long time, as we were missing several players through unavailability, but those who came in did really well.”

Most of the Finch players hadn’t touched the ball when it flew into their net, with Highmoor’s Anthony White unleashing an unstoppable shot into the net from the edge of the area.

But, with Adam Barnard looking lively, the visitors hit back and were only denied an equaliser by a goal-line clearance from Danny Lingwood.

“You can easily go under after conceding an early goal like that, but we didn’t,” said Laugharne.

“After that they had only a couple of more chances in the first half and our keeper didn’t have really much to do.

“We had a couple of shots cleared off their line and we said at half-time we were still in the game, but then our goalkeeper made a mistake and it cost us, though before that he had made a brilliant save.”

Keeper Tom Bryant’s failure to clear presented White with a simple chance to make it 2-0 on the hour mark.

Prior to that, however, Danny Blatchford had forced home stopper Ashley East into make a fine save.

But the Finchampstead striker made no mistake after 71 minutes, racing through to slot the ball low into the corner of the net.

It was a goal the village side certainly deserved and theywere not far away from grabbing a late equaliser through a Richard Evans header.

Laugharne said: “We gave it our best shot but fallen just short to a quality side like Highmoor and we are all disappointed to be out of the cup. I just hope they go on to win it now.”

Finchampstead’s Division One East fixture at Chinnor this Saturday has been called off due to a delay in the completion of new facilities at the Oxon club’s ground. It has been re-arranged for March 15.

 

SANDHURST Town drew 1-1 at Banstead Athletic in Combined Counties League Division One on Saturday.

The Fizzers host Frimley Green at Bottom Meadow this Saturday (3pm).

In the same division, high-flying Eversley & California’s trip to bottom club Farleigh Rovers was postponed on Saturday due to a waterlogged pitch.

The Boars host Banstead Athletic this Saturday (3pm ko).