Bels start the march towards another cup

BELS began a seemingly irresistible march towards a second trophy within the opening week of the season last night. Their Stranger Cup quarter-final at St Peter's was over as a contest as early as the fifth minute by which time Sylvans found themselves two down.

Danny Felbabel had opening the scoring as he finished a surging run into the box with a precise finish and just seconds later Neil Clegg tapped home Darragh Duffy's cross on his return to his former club.

Felbabel added his second midway through the opening period and Clegg went on to complete his brace soon after the turnaround.

Both could easily have had hat-tricks and their team could have finished with a bagful.

You could call it a baptism of fire for new Sylvans boss Martyn de Garis, who was forced into fielding a very young and lightweight back four with Michael Wilson, Ben Duff, Sam Matthews and Tom Strawbridge all unavailable.

Fortunately, the coach's brother, Paul, was in fine form between the sticks and produced several fine stops, one of which - a tip onto the bar from Paul Ramsden's volley - is an early contender for save of the season.

'It is going to be a challenging season,' Martyn de Garis said.

'I am a bit disappointed with the first five minutes - they were sloppy goals to give away - but at the end of the day they are only young and it was just a bit of naive defending.

'It was the best back four we could put out today so the kids have to learn and learn quickly.'

There were positives for de Garis to take from the performance, though, as Sylvans occasionally produced some neat passing moves going forward and their consolation goal was well worked between Blane Queripel and Tom Duff, who finished it off.

'We have played some good football in our pre-season friendlies but could not finish. It was nice to have an end product on one tonight.

'There are some good signs. It will take a couple of weeks to settle though.'

Bels now face St Martin's in the semi-final at Blanche Pierre Lane tomorrow at 2pm.

Meanwhile, Jon Veron was North's hat-trick hero in their 4-0 quarter-final win over Rovers which set up a last four encounter with Vale Rec at Northfield (tomorrow, 4.30pm).

The island striker's finishing was from the top drawer as he notched his side's first three goals before AJ Saunders added an excellent fourth.

'We played well but, to be fair to Rovers, they did too. They battled hard throughout,' said North coach Mick Le Prevost.

'The second half I was very pleased with and we had three quality goals from Jon Veron as well as one from AJ.

'The boys are very tired at the moment and they have only got a day's rest before the semi-final.

'I will be using the same squad again. I am not using the juniors in this competition.'

Rovers coach Martyn Dorey was extremely satisfied with his team's effort.

'We have got a lot of players unavailable but I was really encouraged by the display tonight,' he said.

'I really did not think we were four goals worse than North and when we went in at half-time 2-0 down I felt it was grossly unfair, but if the players perform like that throughout the season there is no reason why we cannot put some points on the board.'