Lairds approached this eagerly awaited tie with a catalogue of team changes enforced by recent injuries. It turned out to be a game of two halves.

Lairds had their usual bright start and Ronnie Morgan was unlucky to see his glancing header hit the side netting on 4 minutes. Newmarket were all fired up, their endeavour belied their lowly league position and they had the upper hand in first half. This forced Lairds into uncharacteristic mistakes and route one clearances.

That said, the pitch was very uneven and it affected the quality of football from both sides. After Lairds’ poor showing it was no real surprise when The Jockeys took the lead on the stroke of half time with Paul Shaw heading an incoming corner into the top corner.

There is one thing that you can be sure of, on the rare occasions that Lairds go behind; they become a very dangerous team. Strong words were obviously said at half time by manager Ian Doran and a couple of early changes were made. Lairds started to get hold of the ball better in the second half and though Newmarket had a couple of half chances the most likely side were Lairds.

On 61 minutes after good build up play, Ronnie Morgan found himself in a one on one with Dave Walton in the Newmarket goal. True to form, Ronnie took the ball round him and tapped into the empty net, at last silencing the noisy home support.

Lairds continued to pressurise the Newmarket defence but time was ticking away.
However all was settled when a cross from the left was met by John Collins who rose majestically above the static Jockey's defence to nod home the winner, this led to delirious scenes both on the pitch and from Lairds loyal band of 100+ supporters.

So The Battleships dream lives on with a place in the semi finals of this prestigious competition. Memories of the Chessington game in which Lairds similarly had to battle against a side with their season hinging on this one trophy.

Following the game Lairds hero John Collins stated that he did feel that team were poor in the first half, but they kept battling. Collo had mentioned to Assistant Manager Paul Conboy before the game that he had a gut feeling that he would score….and score he did…possibly one of the most important goals he will ever get!!!

Paul Mcloughlin