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Sheppey United 4-1 Ashford Borough

Sheppey put in a extremely good performance to beat Ashford Borough in the Inter-Regional Challenge Cup on Saturday. Playing with the wind at their backs in the 1st half, Sheppey took full advantage of the weather conditions to almost attack at will. This was helped by Ashford Borough's defence playing a high line and trying to catch Sheppey offside whenever Sheppey attacked. Sheppey did get caught offside rather more often than they would have liked and did play the ball too far forward on occasion.

Craig Holland opened the scoring in the first half when he received the ball inside the 6-yard box, rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the empty net. Sheppey would have been disappointed that they didn't score more goals, especially when the Ashford defence cleared the ball off the line twice in a matter of seconds from one of Sheppey's numerous corners.

The wind dropped off in the second half and Sheppey raised their game as Ashford lost their's while getting upset at some of the referee's decisions. Craig Holland further extended Sheppey's lead when he managed to beat the offside trap and, when everyone was expecting him to lob the keeper, he rounded him and curled a sweet shot into the net. Sheppey's last 2 goals both resulted from long balls out of defence that took advantage of Ashford's stubborn refusal to drop their attempts at playing an offside trap. Firstly, Ricky Whiting lobbed the keeper after Craig Holland's shot had been parried and Luke Blanshard also lobbed the keeper after being well picked out when player-manager Jamie Allen spotted his run from midfield.

Ashford Borough did spoil keeper Kevin Adlworth's day - who had been superb all game - by pulling a goal back in the last couple of minutes but the final whistle saw Sheppey progress through to the next round. The only downer was that Sheppey didn't score more goals as Craig Holland (twice), Matt Harding, Tony Hewitt (twice) and Scott Bootes all had great chances that they could - and perhaps should - have taken.

Ricky Whiting looks to play the ball on in the first half

Ricky Whiting heads on as Craig Holland looks to latch on the the ball in the 1st half

Ben Stevens looking to put Sheppey through on goal again in the second half on Saturday