Welcome aboard the home of Hype Train Football Club. Here, you can read the match reports from the Train's outing across Saturday & Sunday League action throughout the 2024/25 season, with the team competing in the East Berkshire Football League (EBFL) and the Reading & District Sunday League (RDSL). All aboard.
Match Report: Hype Train FC
Date: Saturday 12th October 2024
Competition: Slough Town Cup (Junior Cup) - Round 1
Opposition: Eton Wick FC
Location: Waingels College, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4RF
Final Score: Hype Train FC 1-1 Eton Wick (Hype Train win 7-6 on penalties)
Request Photos: contact@thehypetrain.co.uk
Match Report:
The Train's encounter against Eton Wick was our 8th fixture of the 2024/25 season in the East Berkshire Football League, with the team competing for the first time in the Slough Town Cup, with the squad in the Junior section of the competition. This was our second encounter against Eton Wick so far this season, with a 7-3 away for The Train back in September preceding this cup clash.
For the second week in a row, we would go into half-time goalless, but not for the lack of effort or chances from the train. With 7 minutes on the clock, Taren Langa intercepted a pass at the edge of Eton Wick's penalty area, before driving into the area and forcing a top save after a low drive at goal. The visitors would retaliate in the 15th minute with 1 of their only 2 shots on goal in the first-half, when their left winger wearing Number 6 was played through one-on-one, but shot early and drew a save from Robert Austin in goal on his right.
A brace of match official moments would then go against the team. First, during the 29th minute Anwar Mmanga did brilliantly to defend a one-on-one situation when an Eton player was cleared on goal, getting his body in front of the man, before sliding to win a foot on the ball, due to the referee's position, though, Mmanga was booked for his troubles of making a good defensive challenge. Second, in the 45minute, Shay Edwards was one-on-one and racing with the ball into the penalty area and was taken down on the edge of the penalty area, with the ref initially awarding a penalty. The ref would change his mind though and give a free-kick outside the box, and on the VEO review, the outstretched leg takes out Edwards just inside the penalty area, meaning we had to settle for a free-kick by Mitchell Saunders that was saved low by the opposing goalkeeper.
One last chance would arise for the Train in the first-half in added on time, starting when Ilyas Abdulwahab won the ball back well on the right flank for the team with a brilliant press, before teeing the ball to Saunders, who then threaded a through ball to Edwards who had held his run. When in the penalty area, a low show was saved expertly by the outstretched right leg of the Eton goalkeeper, before Saunders reached the second ball, set himself, before striking the bar with his attempt, meaning we'd go into the half-time interval still looking for the breakthrough.
The first goal of the game did eventually arise, and it only took until the 50th minute. Eton Wick were trying to move the ball across to their left winger, though was hounded by Abdulwahab, who won the ball back and then played a delightful through ball for Edwards to chase. An Eton central defender stumbled when Edwards won the ball, allowing a charge towards goal and a shot that was again saved, but on the second attempt the ball hit the knee of Edwards and cushioned into the bottom right of the net despite the efforts of the opposition defenders to keep the ball out.
More probing and good passing by the team would eventually meet a stumbling block in the 73rd minute when they won a free-kick right on the halfway line. The eventually set-piece was guided towards the edge of our penalty area, which was flicked on by Leo Pereira towards goal, which then hit the shoulder of Josh Robertson, with the ball rifling into the net - an unfortunate own goal to draw the game level with just over 15 minutes of the game left to play.
The visitors were experts at the dark arts as they attempted to wind down the time of the game, including putting their Manager on the line to flag everything, and having players repeatedly go down, though it didn't stop an opportunity to win the game. In the 87th minute, Obeydah Abdulwahab showed good footwork on the left wing, before finding the feet of Saunders in the middle of the park. Saunders played in Edwards, with another one-on-one effort saved by the feet of the Eton Wick goalkeeper! The referee a minute later would then waive away a penalty claim when Saunders glided to the byline and was collided into before he could cut the ball back - meaning that penalties for the first time in our Saturday League history beckoned.
We at Hype Train won the toss and elected to go first, with our first 4 takers - Shay Edwards, Mitchell Saunders, Chris Marshall, and Leo Pereira - all finding the net, whilst Eton's second penalty was saved by Austin after striking the ball centrally, meaning we just needed to score our 5th penalty to advance. Obeydah Abdulwahab took that responsibility on to win the game, though saw his effort saved low to the Eton keepers' left, whilst the visitors converted their 5th, meaning sudden death would be played out.
Josh Robertson, Lucas Coe, and Nadim Gharabli, would all successfully convert their penalties to take the shootout to 7-6, with Eton's Number 10 stepping up and having the crucial penalty saved to Austin's right, when he got two hands on the ball and scooped in the low effort - winning the game for the Train and ensure a quarter-final home outing against Langley FC U18's in November!
Next up for the Train, we shift focus to local cup action as we are set to host Slough Heating Reserves at Waingels College in the first round of the EBFL Presidents Cup on 26th October 2024.
Did you Know?:
Our 7-6 victory on penalties was our third penalty shootout as a club, though it is our first in Saturday League football, with both previous coming in the Reading & District Sunday League's Industrial Cup in the 2022/23 season
We now have a 2W 1L record in penalty shootouts, with all 3 taking place in home matches
This was our first competitive match in the Slough Town Cup of any kind in our 6th season in the EBFL
Our encounter against Eton Wick was also our 50th appearance in a competitive cup game, in what was our 165th competitive match
The victory over Eton Wick was also our 50th competitive win on home soil, and 95th in total
Thoughts from Club Secretary, Robert Austin:
"Saturday's cup game is one that personally I won't forget for a very long time, as it was a great moment to save the crucial penalty kick to send us through, and for the players the result on the day was richly deserved over the course of the game. We held most of the possession, created much more chances that we should have converted, and only allowed them back into the game due to an own goal by ourselves in a freak moment. I was really pleased with the squad though that we got over the line, they played a good game that upon review on our VEO that should have been finished within the 90 minutes - but hey, sometimes penalties are exciting and both teams proved that on the day.
This is the nature of cup football though, there is a real bite in games until the last kick, and this was a well contested game that was just that. The only improvement we could have made on the day was being more clinical on the day, but credit to the Eton goalkeeper for some top saves but is something we would like to work on in the weeks ahead as we gear up for some big cup and league games in the coming month.
We wish Eton Wick's players the best for the rest of the season, they fought well in the game and were much improved from our first league outing against them, and they scored some good penalties too."
Hype Train FC: Matchday Squad
Manager: Robert Austin
Starting 11:
GK: Robert Austin
DEF: Anwar Mmanga (Boateng 56')
DEF: Chris Marshall
DEF: Josh Robertson
DEF: Leo Pereira
MID: Taren Langa (Burles-Nash 70')
MID: Nadim Gharabli
MID: Mitchell Saunders
MID: Ilyas Abdulwahab (Coe 64')
MID: Luke Follington (O. Abdulwahab 56')
FOR: Shay Edwards
Substitutes:
SUB: Lucas Coe
SUB: Brad Burles-Nash SUB: Eme Boateng SUB: Obeydah Abdulwahab
Goals & Assists:
Goal 1: Edwards (goal), I. Abdulwahab (assist)
Penalties:
Penalty 1: Edwards (scored)
Penalty 2: Eton Wick (scored)
Penalty 3: Saunders (scored)
Penalty 4: Eton Wick (saved)
Penalty 5: Marshall (scored)
Penalty 6: Eton Wick (scored)
Penalty 7: Pereira (scored)
Penalty 8: Eton Wick (scored)
Penalty 9: O. Abdulwahab (saved)
Penalty 10: Eton Wick (scored)
Penalty 11: Robertson (scored)
Penalty 12: Eton Wick (scored)
Penalty 13: Coe (scored)
Penalty 14: Eton Wick (scored)
Penalty 15: Gharabli (scored)
Penalty 16: Eton Wick (saved)
Want to know more about The Hype Train?
The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in general football and Fantasy sports reporting, starting with Fantasy Premier League (FPL), before expanding to MLS Fantasy coverage in 2018.
We pride ourselves in providing beautiful graphics, statistics, in-depth analytical reporting and free weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb rankings tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review games, live sport, and professional wrestling.
In 2019, Hype Train Football Club was formed, becoming the first Fantasy Football website to take to the field. HTFC is a socially active team across social and web channels, providing regular match highlights, match reports, comprehensive player statistics and unique player profiles. We won both Goal of the Season Awards in the Berkshire and County FA regions, with Callum Parr-Jones winning the Berks & Bucks FA award, whilst Martin King won the PlaySport UK award.
In 2021, we formed the Reading Sunday Social League (RSSL), a competitive Sunday League involving 8 teams in its debut season. During the 2021/22 season, we won our first-ever trophy, lifting the East Berkshire Football League's Presidents Cup!
The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog' in 2016 by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), and were again shortlisted as a finalist in 2019 in the 'Best Fantasy Football Blog' category.
You can follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, follow Hype Train FC on Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube channel for exclusive content, visit our club's dedicate website, or visit our website here at www.thehypetrain.co.uk
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