Pinewood Predators played away at Ascot in a first-round cup match. The fixture suffered a late kick-off due to nets being locked in the storage shed as well as referee delays.

The match started very competitively, if a little scrappy, with Pinewood applying lots of pressure against a solid defensive Ascot setup.

Early action saw Noah hit over the crossbar, Jack’s turn-and-shot on target and Gregory shooting over the bar. Some super running in behind from Edward, created more opportunities, but either the finish or goalkeeping prowess denied Predators.

A lovely pass from Ollie to Noah put the ball in the net finally, but it was disallowed for offside. The same outcome came when Gregory thought he had scored indirectly from a short corner and later from a Jack cross shot, finished smartly by Edward - all disallowed for offside. The frustration continued with Aaron’s clean strike rebounding back off the post, to be collected by the goalkeeper.

The breakthrough finally came on 16 minutes, with a lovely lob from Nathan over the keeper. Pinewood continued to press, but Ascot’s solid defence and excellent goalkeeper kept the score tight. The second goal was a simple but clinical finish from Max, assisted by Edward, just before half time.

In the second half, Pinewood maintained the pressure, and Noah scored twice in quick succession—once from a loose ball in the box and another from Gregory’s assist—bringing the score to 4-0.

Where Ascot did manage to press up the pitch it was well marshalled with neat midfield interplay from Gustav, Zachary & Barney and solid defence with Harrison, Remi and Aaron reading the play brilliantly to cut the ball out, before neatly distributing back up field.

With the game now secure, Jack H came out of goal to play outfield and was a real handful as a target man, with Ollie dutifully taking on goalkeeper duties.

As the game drew to a close, the pressure started to tell. Jack L scored from a long-range strike to make it 5-0, Noah completed his hat-trick two minutes later, and Jack H finished the scoring with a strong run and finish with the last kick of the match, ending the game at 7-0.

Despite Ascot’s resilient defence and standout goalkeeping performance, Pinewood’s dominance throughout was clear, and they earned what in the end was a comfortable victory.