After a great start to the season, Shipley wanted to continue the streak and next up was Whitehawk In the League Cup.

With only a couple of days gone since our last game down in Saltdean, there were a few injuries and a few tired legs, so the changes rang today with Ryan coming back in, Oliver back in goal & Alafy coming in for Lewis W in the midfield. Nigel spoke with the boys and made a few changes to the formation and wanted to try something new with the lads on the pitch in preparation for the season.

We started extremely fast with Ethan, Dorian and Alafy linking up well on the right hand side and our first goal came within 40 seconds! Ethan played a great little ball into the path of Alafy who turned his man before rolling the ball into the run of Big D. D beat his man and then another defender before looking up and whipping a fantastic ball across the box into Stephen who took the shot on the half volley into the right hand side of the goal. 1-0

From here, the boys took control of the game, keeping the ball, knocking it around comfortably between each other, easily putting together upwards of 30 plus passes before playing it forward and into a dangerous attacking area. Sam, Dorian, Alafy and Kieron all came close to scoring with the Whitehawk goalkeeper putting in a great shift, pulling off multiple goals to keep the score at 1-0.

Our second came from some great play down the left hand side from Ryan. He picked up the ball in the midfield before driving forward, past several defenders before knocking a great cross in, only for it to be cleared out for a corner. Dorian quickly took the corner and although the Whitehawk defence cleared it, it fell outside the box to Jack who calmly controlled it before spraying a great pass out to the left hand side to Stephen. Stephen controlled the ball with one touch and with his second touch rifled a shot with his left foot past the keeper into the roof of the net. 2-0.

The boys continued to create chances with Jack, Dorian, Alafy and Sam all coming extremely close to widening the gap.

At around the 20 min mark, Nige made some changes by bringing on Tian for Alafy and Lewis W on for Jack.

Shortly after coming on, Tian got the ball on the right hand side and played a quick 1-2 with Dorian before cutting inside and taking a shot. The keeper pulled off a great save to push it round the post to give us another corner. Another quickly taken corner to Ethan, who laid it into the path of Tian gave T the chance to beat his man before lining up and letting go a rocket of a shot into the roof of the net past the statue like keeper. 3-0 and Tian's First goal for the club!

The next goal came quickly and again it was some great work down the right hand side. Mase had come on for Stephen at this point and Freddie came on for Kieron.

Dorian again linking up well with Ethan and Tian, beat his man and received the ball on the run. He knocked it past his man before looking up and whipping in a dangerous cross that bounced off Freddie's foot and into the path of Mase. Mase took a great touch before lashing the ball past the keeper. 4-0

To cap off a great first half performance, D got on the score sheet for the next goal. This time the ball coming from deep in midfield and Lewis W winning it before playing it out wide to Ryan. Ryan and Mase played a nifty little 1-2 between each other before Ryan sent a great through ball for Sam to turn on the burners and beat his man.
On the left hand side of the box, Sam beat 2 men before looking up and playing a wicked ball across the goal for Dorian to meet it at the back post and finished calmly with a sidefoot into the back of the net! 5-0.

HT TD - 5 - WHITEHAWK - 0

At the half, Nige sat the boys down and explained to them that it is only a job half done. He made some changes to players and formation, moving back to a 3-4-3 and giving Toby, Dorian and Sam a rest, bringing Stephen, Alafy and Jack back onto the pitch.

It didn't take long for us to get scoring again, and it was another fast start to the half for Stephen who managed to get his Hat Trick with a little help from Alafy. Tian spread a pass out to Alafy on the right, and showing his pace, he skimmed his man before driving along the byline and cutting the ball all the way across to the back post for Stephen to tap it into the back of the net. 6-0

Scoring slowed down for a few minutes with some sloppy passes coming into play and finishing taking a bit of a back seat with a few sitters missed.

Our Next goal came from the boot of Freddie O, after some good work again down the right between Tian and Alafy before the latter took the ball past his man and drilled a cross into a dangerous area and some great movement gave Freddie the run on his defender before knocking the ball past the keeper and into the bottom right corner! 7-0

Tian was having a great game, drifting inbetween the defence and midfield of the Whitehawks and his second goal was very well deserved! He picked up the ball from Jack and turned his man before playing a quick 1-2 with Stephen. Tian jinked past his man, beat another defender and another defender before rolling the ball onto his left foot and whipping a great shot into the bottom right hand corner of the goal! 8-0

Right from Kick off, we won the ball and pushed forward with Alafy, who played in a great pass into the path of Stephen. Stephen controlled the ball on the run with the outside of his left foot before driving into the box and holding off his man before hitting a sweet strike with the outside of his left foot again into the far left hand corner, 4 goals on the day for Fitz! 9-0

Literally off of kick off again, Ryan won the ball and played it into the path of Stephen, who turned his man and laid it into the run of Kieron, who held off his man before finishing precisely into the far right corner of the goal, past the diving keeper! 10-0

Our next goal came from a corner from the right hand side and an inswinging delivery from Stephen into the middle of the penalty area, with Toby winning his header and flicking it backwards into the path of Kieron, who took a touch on his chest past a defender before hitting a volley down into the ground to bounce over the diving keeper again! great finish! 11-0

Less than 2 minutes later we got back on the score sheet again, this time with Sam getting his name on the board! Lewis picked up the ball in a central area and played a ball into the run of Sam, who like a dancer in Saturday night Fever, Danced his way past 5 defenders before calmly slotting the ball into the near post for a brilliantly taken goal! 12-0

From here the boys didn't take their foot off the gas and pushed for another goal. This time Freddie laid the ball into Jack,who was playing right back at this point, and Jack looks up and pings a pass over the top into the run of Alafy, who held off his man, cut inside and hit a brilliant shot into the top of the net! 13-0

Now, all the goals that were scored today were brilliant in some way or another but our last goal meant so much to the team. Toby Hunter who has been with the team 3 years, stepped up and took his turn! He picked up the ball in the midfield before turning into prime Ronaldinho and dribbling closely past at least 6 players before breaking through into the box and calmly slotting the ball into the bottom right hand corner! Our very own Toby Haaland! The boys knew how much that goal meant to Toby, His first for our club, and they celebrated it with him, running half the length of the pitch to celebrate with the lads! 14-0

FT
TD - 14 - WHITEHAWK- 0

A fantastic performance from the boys after a short gap between games and good to have so many scorers on the day!

MOTM- Stephen Mackey-Fitzsimons - One of his best performances for the club, with 4 goals on the day and several assists to help push the boys forward for the win.

Onto the next round of the cup and looking towards the game against PFD on Wednesday night.