Loddiswell Reserves 4 Upton Athletic Reserves 2
Saturday 20th February 2010 - Fred Hewings Quarter-final

Loddiswell Reserves went into this Fred Hewings quarter-final tie against Division One opponents Upton Athletic Reserves confident that an upset could be achieved if they played to the best of their ability. This they did throughout the team and at times played football worthy of a higher position in the South Devon League.

Upton were very tidy with their play, keeping hold of the ball for long periods of time, but never really breached the back line of Dan Stathers, Ben Rogers, Sam Elliott and Shaun Rowe, leaving ‘keeper Mark Stacey with little to do.

Meanwhile wide men Andy Edmonds and Rob Tapper were in the kind of form that would give any defence nightmares as they constantly latched on to passes from central midfielders Tim Stathers and Sean Raymont, and ran at the Upton full backs.

Front men Chris Guard and Dom Farliegh were also keeping the Upton defence on their toes and it was the former that finally opened up a deserved lead for the hosts. Rob Tapper fired in a shot from the left which the ‘keeper was only able to parry, as ever Guard was anticipating the unexpected and was first to the loose ball to make it 1-0.

Despite further pressure from Loddiswell, Upton managed to score next after a slight misunderstanding allowed their striker to nip in to equalise. This didn’t faze Lodds though and they continued to use the ball well to apply more pressure on the Upton goal. Lodds second eventually came when Sean Raymont fired in a free kick from the edge of the box to take the Greens into half-time with a 2-1 lead.

Both sides knew it would be important to score the next goal, and only minutes into the second half it was Loddiswell who scored it. Rob Tapper making yet another run from deep, played the ball to Dom Farleigh, who cleverly back healed the ball into Tapper’s path again for the winger to score his first of the game.

Ironically Lodd’s third goal inspired Upton to have their best spell of the game, and although they didn’t actually test Loddiswell’s ‘keeper the pressure finally told when a shot from the edge of the box seemed destined for the top right hand corner of the goal - it was only kept out by a reaction save, unfortunately by Loddiswell’s left back.

Upton converted the penalty and Loddiswell were now down to 10 men, however, despite this setback, Loddiswell looked the more likely to score again, and so they did. This time Andy Edmonds broke through on goal only to be brought down before he had chance to shoot. With Edmonds nursing a sore leg from the challenge that brought him down, the penalty duties were left to Rob Tapper who coolly netted his second of the match to complete the 4-2 victory over Upton.

This was without doubt Loddiswell Reserves best performance of the season, with every player doing their bit to contribute, and in particular Rob Tapper completed a good day for himself when the referee named him as the Jail Ale Man of the Match.