Report

Priory travelled to play Hampton who are top of The Peterborough Junior Alliance League division 2 in the second round of the Hunts Cup.
For a change Priory actually started the match brightly and dominated possession for the first 10 minutes but didn’t have anything to show for their domination. As Hampton finally got a little possession Priory hit them on the counter attack when James Thomas charged through a couple of challenges before passing the ball to Lee Adams who hit a lovely dipping shot from outside the penalty area giving the Hampton keeper no chance. Within a couple of minutes Priory doubled their lead, Ben Gibbins collected the ball and played a glorious cross field ball which cut the Hampton defence in half allowing Jamie Bottomley to race clear of his marker and shot passed the advancing keeper. Hampton found away back in the match when a move saw them advance down the centre of the pitch and score. On the verge of halftime Hampton snatched an equaliser when a long range shot hit the bottom of the post and gently rolled in.
The second half saw Priory really dominate the match and for long periods of play the match was played entirely in the Hampton half but for all of this possession they only had one goal to show for it when Jack Brebner miss hit a long range shot which thankfully found it’s way to Ben Gibbins who calmly stroked the ball into the net via the post. Hampton sent the match into extra time when they scored with a header from the last kick of normal time.
The first half of extra time passed without major incident but the second half of extra time saw Priory have a lucky escape when centre back Ollie Atkinson who was positioned on the edge of the penalty area got his head to a long range shot and deflected it passed Tommo in the Priory goal and the ball seemed destined to end up in the Priory net but the last bounce on the heavy ground saw it deviate in direction and hit the post and roll away to safety. With time running out Nathan Arnold burst forward exchanging a one –two with Ben Gibbins and his cross from near the bye-line was hacked into his own net by an unlucky Hampton defender who was put under immense pressure from Lee Adams.
Priory now advance in the quarter finals winning 4-3 after extra time. Some of the passing and keeping the ball for long periods of play was impressive.