In the first round of the Stratford cup, Fletching came up against division six opposition in the form of Bolney Rovers. With Harris the only absentee The Reserves were almost at full strength with new signing, Ollie Burnett starting on the bench and the return of Neil Head.

Fletching started well dominating the early play making as Rovers worked hard. The chances came and went with some strong running from Dowding who shot wide on several occasions. Some exquisite through balls from the influential Cronin to the strike force of Powell and Burchett, provided them with a number of glorious chances which they squandered.

By this time Fletching were creating plenty of chances and should have been several up. Then out of the blue, Cronin slips one through the back only for Powell to latch onto with power and precision into the bottom left of the goal. Fletching then stepped up the pressure and won a penalty minutes after the first goal had gone in. Burchett, who wasn’t having the best of times stepped up and blasted over the bar. Fletching still pressed and pushed at Bolney on many occasions. Then Dowding picked up the ball in the middle of the park, took on several players and blasted home into the back of the net past a despairing keeper.

The away side carved out some good opportunities, testing Bradley for the first time in the match. Then the number 9 for Bolney picked up the ball and after not being closed down by the tangerine army, was able to shoot at the Fletching goal and scored past Bradley, only the third goal he’d conceded all season. After continuing with good spells of play Fletching started to dominate play and after missing a penalty early in the half, Burchett made amends for it following up a deep corner only to smash the ball into the net with a clean half volley to put the villagers 3-1 up at the break.

Fletching carried on the good possession after the break winning four corners in a row and when the fourth corner came in from Scott, a mix up from the Bolney defence allowed Cronin to poke home from ten yards to put the villagers 4-1 up with still most of the second half to play.

The visitors came back at Fletching with some great play from the number 9 making a good run only to slot one in the top right of Bradley’s goal to put the division six outfit back in the game. Rovers were now dictating the game and chance after chance fell to them, none of them being dispatched. Fletching came back at the opposition with some inspirational play from the central midfield pairing of Cronin and Head. They fed Burchett and Powell through on several instances but once again, they failed to test the keeper.

The decisive moment of the game came when Cronin played in Powell to slot home past the keeper to kill off any chance of a come back. Soon after, the management duo of Clark and Minty Snr took off Powell denying him his hat trick and brought on debutant Burnett. Fletching were bossing the game with some good signs from Burnett linking up well with Scott down the right hand side. Eventually the good play affected the game when some delightful one touch stuff down the right hand side allowed Burnett to poach home his first for The Archers.

The game finished with the hosts winning 6-2 and the unbeaten run of The Reserves was still intact. The deadly pairing of Clarky and Minty snr making the fletching side tick for the fifth win in as many games (and another sterling performance from Minty jnr running the line for only the third time).

Team: Bradley, Jefford, Dann (Hill), Fletcher, Scott, Cronin, Head (Carter), Dowding, Burchett, Powell (Burnett) Subs not used: Clarky