FA VASE FIRST ROUND
Hillingdon Borough 1
Hadley 2
(after extra time)
HILLINGDON Borough coach Jason O’Connor cut a frustrated figure after watching Hillingdon Borough crash out of the FA Vase at the first round on Saturday.
Borough took the lead but were pegged back by Hadley and eventually exited the competition after extra-time, leaving O’Connor wondering what might have been.
He said: “We’ve created the four best chances of the match, we’ve set traps for them but we just haven’t produced where you need to. And that goes for this level or any level.”
After a goalless first half, Hillingdon went ahead after a clever turn and finish by Ruben Lourenco. But within two minutes, Hadley were level with Jordan Watson getting on the end of a low cross by Mark Dawson.
O’Connor admitted that this was the turning point of the game.
He added: “That has killed us, to concede so early after going ahead. It’s a poor goal to concede. Someone’s gone to sleep and we’ve made it far too easy for them.”
With the match all square after 90 minutes, extra-time was needed to find a winner.
And it was the away side who found that extra bit of something to sneak home a winner.
Boro goalkeeper Luke Dennison came charging out of his area to intercept a ball in the channel but was beaten to it by Kieran Smith, who crossed for Dan Quattromini to tap the ball into the empty net.
With Hillingdon Borough’s hopes of getting to Wembley now gone, attention will return to the league with next Saturday’s home game against Colney Heath.
O’Connor is confident that the team will put this disappointment behind them.
He added: “We’re on a run of three wins in four and we need to keep that good form going.”
