The Ship found themselves miles from home with nearly a whole team missing from the squad and facing an unknown quantity, the sun and a tiring slope on the wind-swept plains of Bromley. Manager Hurrey had spent the week scouring the internet for players (including desperate texting/emailing of anyone that even remotely sounded like a keeper) and handed 4 debuts out on a day on which the Ship were expected to struggle without their big guns. Alex Lewis braved almost being run over on his bike to help out at left-back; Simon's mate (and Hurrey-a-like) Matt slotted alongside his friend in the middle of the park; a 3rd Boland Brother (Luke) came off the bench; and (after an 11th hour Facebook revelation) the Ship had their first England International (albeit in futsal) don a Ship shirt in the form of the confident Eric in goal. It looked like the team had been playing together for years as the Ship sprung out the blocks despite facing the wind, the low sun and a wicked slope in the first half. A make-shift centre-back pairing of Adam and Dan were commanding and elegant at the back, while Matt and Simon in midfield were unrelenting and dominant. Adil was causing havoc down the left in front of his dad (that had showed neat touches in the warm-up and that almost had Ollie handing him a shirt) and an early break-through came from one of his terrorising runs. Set free, he accelerated away from the full-back and sent a superb cross into the corridor of uncertainty which saw the defender poke into his own net under pressure from Anthony and hand the Ship a confidence-boosting lead. Joy turned to elation soon after when a poor goal-kick was met by a stooping Matt header and set Ollie free to finish well from the edge of the box and put them 2-0 up. The young opponents couldn't get a foot-hold in the game despite all the elements being in their favour and this was mainly down to a terrific, man-of-the-match, debut performance from new boy Matt who was tigerish in the tackle and together with Simon was refusing their players a second to think. Charit and Alex were committed in the tackle and supporting an almost swaggering Adam and forceful Dan that was snuffing out any vague attempt by Bromley to put an attack together. The Ship were confident at half-time that another strike would kill it but both Anthony and (especially) Ollie did-a-Chris-Boland when through on goal in the second-half and it took the arrival of the sprightly 3rd Boland late on up front to seal it. The Boland Brothers had casually forgotten to mention the existence of their younger, even more talented sibling and it was his swerving shot that was mis-handled by Bromley's suspect keeper and fell to Adil to smash in from 6 yards to put the Ship through to the next round of the London Cup. Sadly the Ship and the otherwise untroubled Eric couldn't secure a clean-sheet as the keeper's brilliant efforts in the final minutes were in vain as Bromley scrambled a consolation. The Ship had beaten the odds and performed exceptionally, especially in the first-half, after a tortuous journey and shown the strength and depth available to Ollie in the squad (and Facebook if you look hard enough!).
