Knockout

The first cup competition of the season had dawned upon us: the Nighttime Cup saw 98 NFA clubs , with the winner guaranteed a place in the UFFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Our opponents were Ding Dong FC, who were in the midst of an impressive club record 10-match unbeaten run. They were a team built on a solid formation, with few star names but lots of excellent performers. It was going to be a tough match.

It got off to the best possible start after a defensive howler from Ding Dong keeper Pa Dembo Touray (who finished the match with a 4.9 rating). Rushing out of his box to make a hurried clearance, he was forced to head the ball away, where it landed at the feet of Morten Gamst Pedersen. Even 35 yards from goal, it was still an easy finish, as he lobbed the ball into the empty goal.

We weren't strangers to a 1-0 lead, although in previous matches we'd failed to hold onto it. So there was much rejoicing when, in the 52nd minute, Luton Shelton rounded the defence to put Hampton into a seemingly unassailable 2-0 lead. (The word "seemingly" will be your clue here.)

Peter Niemeyer pulled a scrappy goal back for the home side, and in truth we were left holding on for the final whistle. But for the third time in the season so far, we fell victim to our old foe: the last-minute equaliser. Diouf bagged a sitter to send the game to extra time, and from there it looked like a penalty shoot-out all the way.

And so to penalties. In the end, it was little more than a footnote: Ding Dong converted all of their penalties, despite Dudek's despairing efforts, and only Pedersen and Pahars were able to score for Hampton. A 4-2 defeat on penalties to a team ranked over 600 places above us in the world rankings shouldn't have been a disappointment, but given what had gone before, we had to consider ourselves extremely unlucky.

Another cup competition lay in wait, in the form of the Game World Cup, and our experience in this match would surely stand us in good stead for the knockout games ahead.