Simon Healey reports: “The Cormorants made the 90 minute trek to Eastleigh for the third round of the EH Tier 2 Under-16 Girls Cup on Sunday. We were missing six senior players due to a mix of illness and GCSE maths mocks revision (what are the youth of today like…), but were still able to field a strong XI, with Meg’s younger sister Kayla stepping in as a last-minute sub (and putting in an amazing performance).

Trojans started strongly and soon went a goal up following a short corner and they could have added to this, wasting several good four-on-two breaks. Brighton began to get a foothold in the game as the half wore on, forcing several excellent saves, before the game turned on the stroke of half time with an equaliser from Sorrel.

This gave us the momentum going in to the second half, and we totally dominated for 20 minutes without scoring - the Trojans keeper playing a blinder. Then, with less than 15 minutes left, we finally broke the deadlock with two goals in a minute from Imogen. Cue 10 minutes of siege defending as Trojans fought back but our defence stayed solid, with Martha making several great saves.

Poppy nearly added a fourth as time ran out from a great counter attack. This was definitely the best team performance I have witnessed at the club, with everybody stepping up, including several girls having to play out of position. MoMs were Martha and Kayla. Roll on the last 16 - the magic of the cup lives on."