Wessex League East Cowes Victoria comfortably beat Island League Bembridge at Beatrice Avenue on Tuesday evening to reach the Isle of Wight Senior (Gold) Cup semi finals for the 1st time in 3 seasons.
Last season, the Victorians were vanquished at the quarter final stage on penalties after drawing 3-3 with Brading Town. The season before that, West Wight were victorious against Vics, drawing 1-1 in full time before winning the tie on penalties.
However, lightning did not strike Vics in the form of defeat at the hands of Harwoods League opposition for the 3rd year in succession yesterday evening.
Vics – taking no chances – played their best available squad but were without Liam Triggs (unavailable) and Harrison Yates (injured).
The Victorians got off to a slow start with Caleb Neale spurning 2 early chances. Adam Voller then had a golden scoring opportunity when he went 1-on-1 with Bembridge keeper Kev Read but blasted the ball at Read with Scott Jones unable to convert the follow up.
It took until the 36th minute for Vics to make the breakthrough when Jacob Reynolds blasted in a Toby Snow cross from the edge of the 6-yard box with Scott Jones getting the finishing touch from close to the goal line (1-0).
Vics’ 2nd came on the stroke of half time courtesy of a curling long range strike from Elliot Wheeler (2-0) – the first football of quality in a disappointing 1st half.
Jacob Reynolds provided the 3rd goal for the hosts, blasting the ball into the back of the net from the middle of the penalty area in 1st half injury time (3-0).
The Victorians had dominated the half, winning a total of 12 corners, and only poor finishing and some heroic goalkeeping from Read had kept their lead to just 3 goals.
Half time: East Cowes Victoria 3-0 Bembridge
Vics centre forward Scott Jones bagged his brace in the 52nd minute, taking 2 attempts to beat Read after being set up by Toby Snow (4-0).
Jacob Reynolds grabbed his brace in the 72nd minute after being set up by substitute Barney Snaith (5-0).
The luckless Caleb Neale then failed to add his name onto the list of scorers when the saw his shot cannon off the crossbar.
The Victorians scored 2 further goals in the dying embers of the game, with captain Liam Newbold netting 4 minutes from full time (6-0), and Toby Snow setting up Jacob Reynolds to score his hat trick in the penultimate minute of the match (7-0).
Bembridge came close to grabbing a consolation in the final minute through centre forward Michael Brown, but it wasn’t to be.
Full time: East Cowes Victoria 7-0 Bembridge
East Cowes Victoria: Ram, Snow, Boyd-Kerr, Newbold, Perrin, Chapman, Reynolds, Wheeler, Jones, C. Neale, Voller Subs: Mumford, Snaith, Hart, J. Neale, Coode
Bembridge: Read, Snow, Hutcheson, White, Ward, A. Clark, Day, Mazambara, Brown, Malin (c), Plenty Subs: Tuckey, Atkinson-Goffe, S. Clark, Sampson, Wye
All 3 Isle of Wight Wessex League clubs – Newport, Cowes Sports and East Cowes Victoria – are now through to the Gold Cup semi-finals, with the final place to be contested between W&B Sports and Ventnor at Sandy Lane on Saturday, 14th December.
