Imperial reach next round in Cup

It’s safe to say that the ICUAFC 6th XI hasn’t had the best of starts to the season. However, when it comes to the cup, league form is thrown out of the window and we made the epic journey to North London with confidence to play RUMS (UCL Medics) 3s. Despite the biblical deluge in West London, Shenley seemed to have escaped the worst of the rain, leaving that age-old saying: “It’s grim up north” with little credibility. After an impeccably kept minute’s silence for Remembrance Day, the game kicked off and IC were straight on the front foot. The untested midfield of Pia and Sang worked well to retain the ball and started to launch attacks on the RUMS goal. It didn’t take long for the first chance to materialise with Fogo being found unmarked by Frosty 5 yards out. Unfortunately thanks to his hideous new sky blue and orange boots, purchased in soft ground and hard ground to single handedly “break the Nike and Adidas duopoly”, he managed to put the ball over the bar. It didn’t take him long to make amends however as again Frosty whipped another delicious ball into the box, which Fogo managed to squeeze into the corner. Within ten minutes it was 2-0. Tremendous wing play was a running theme in the half and this continued with Stewart cutting inside and putting in another great cross. Under no pressure at all the RUMS centre back thought this was the time to demonstrate some “experienced” defending and nod the ball back to his keeper, who somehow conspired to simultaneously save it above his head and let it through his legs into the net. The first half yielded one solitary chance for RUMS, a speculative effort from 30 yards which hit the bar, but the 6s went into half time fairly comfortable. Inevitably the opposition came out firing after such a lacklustre half but the back four of Raguenez, Wood, Coney 2013 and Widdows easily absorbed the pressure, reducing them to pot shots from distance, the best of which was a free kick easily held by keeper Stillwell. Widdows then showed strong technique by slipping over but in the process launching into a John Terry-esque salmon dive to head the ball away. At this point Fogo decided that scoring was far easier without a goalkeeper in the way. A Zarucki header put him through and he rounded the keeper before slotting home. 5 minutes later he completed his hattrick by nutmegging the RUMS centre back before again rounding the keeper and rolling the ball into the empty net. To finally rub salt into the wounds Fogo netted his fourth, running onto a delightful chip from Pia to again round the keeper and clip into the net. 5 minutes later and the final whistle went with so much to savour: 4 goals for Fogo, first win of the season, first clean sheet of the season, next round of the cup, Widdows and Coney finally moving into positive fantasy football points and the prospect of teaching the ancient art of matchbox to the netball girls later that evening. 5-0 - TOO EASY.

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