Hillingdon 5-4 Brent
MSFA Bower Cup
Saturday 14th November 2015
Brent lost 5-4 away to Hillingdon with Hillingdon’s Blessing Tshoblkabule netting a hat-trick in a free-flowing game with twists and turns in both halves as well as two penalties.
After coming back from 3-1 down at half time to lead 4-3 with 20 minutes remaining it looked certain that Brent would get something out of this game before the team conceded two goals in the last eleven minutes.
Both sides had early attempts on goal with Drilon Krasniqi going close for Brent and Hillingdon being thwarted by several good saves from David Krupinski in the visiting goal. With both sides attacking at will, it was surprising that the first goal was not scored until the 24th minute when Brent opened the scoring through Felix Amoah. Dominic D’Souza and Krasniqi exchanged passes and when the ball was not cleared in the Hillingdon penalty area Amoah was on hand to smash the ball home. Three minutes later Brent almost increased their lead when Amoah crossed for D’Souza to head narrowly wide.
Within a couple of minutes, Hillingdon were awarded a penalty when the ball hit Ghellor Kweme’s arm and Tshoblkabule sent Brent’s Krupinski the wrong way to equalise. Hillingdon took the lead on 34 minutes from a corner thanks to Christian Zaydee heading home unchallenged in the six yard box. Within two minutes, Hillingdon had extended their lead when Tshoblkabule scored his second from a free-kick hit from outside the Brent penalty box that drifted into the bottom right of the Brent goal.
There had been barely 90 seconds played in the second half when Brent won a corner and Mason Spencer saw his cross palmed into the goal by the ‘keeper to reduce Hillingdon’s lead. Nine minutes into the second half, Brent were on level terms when Tommy Lahti’s pass split the Hillingdon defence and D’Souza held off the last defender to score just inside the right hand post to equalise at 3-3. Amoah was inches away from giving Brent the lead shortly afterwards when his shot went narrowly wide of Hillingdon’s left hand post.
Two minutes later, Amoah did score his second from another Spencer corner when his shot was initially saved but he reacted quickest to head the ball home.
On 55 minutes, Brent’s Krupinski made a superb double save to prevent a Hillingdon equaliser, but Hillingdon were awarded their second penalty of the match when Brent’s Kyle Lake-Bryan was adjudged to have been too physical with a shoulder barge in the Brent penalty area. Tshoblkabule duly scored his second penalty of the game and completed his hat-trick. Brent’s heads dropped and within 90 seconds Hillingdon scored the eventual winner through Joe Mills with another header directly from a corner. With three minutes remaining, Brent had an opportunity to level but D’Souza under pressure from the Hillingdon centre-back saw his effort clear the Hillingdon bar.