Moneys made the short hop across PO3 to visit the PMC Stadium last night as Baffins Milton Rovers hosted us in the second round of the PDFA Cup, aka the Portsmouth Senior Cup.

It took the best part of half an hour, but Moneys eventually took the lead just inside 30 minutes. Jordan Pile’s corner was headed in by Jack Lumsden at the near post. The defensive midfielder using his tall frame to jockey well and score the opening goal. Its the former Jersey Bulls players first goal for Moneys.

Barely another minute had past and that lead became two. Baffins looked all at sea almost straight from the restart, when the ball fell to full debutant Harry Close on the edge of the box, where he spotted Rudi Blankson in space. On the half volley, Rudi rocketed the ball into the bottom left corner past former Moneys shot-stopper, Dylan Kramer.

On around 37 minutes, two became three. Simba Mlambo’s press seemingly forced Baffins into a mistake and he got the deftest of touches to take the ball under Kramer, leaving Mlambo with virtually an open goal to slot home.

Just before half time, Moneys won a penalty as Simba was judged to have been dragged back by the Baffins defender. In the protests before the penalty was taken, Baffins’ Fin Bello was dismissed for a second bookable offence. He had been given one earlier in the game for dissent towards the assistant official.

Rudi stepped up to take the penalty but Dylan Kramer did what Moneys fans have seen plenty of times, he saved it well. Unfortunately for Kramer, Simba Mlambo was the first to react to the rebound, and he put the ball in the net for his second of the evening.

Half Time – Baffins Milton Rovers 0-4 Moneys

At half-time, Kaleem Haitham made a return for Moneys as he replaced Simba Mlambo. Not long after that, Max Smith replaced Jack Farrier.

Just before the hour mark saw the pick of the evenings goals. Lawrence Cooper pushed on with the ball well inside the left channel, cut inside and into the box followed by a couple of stepovers to bamboozle the two defenders and curled a fantastic effort across Kramer and into the back of the net. A superb goal!

As the game progressed there was some more subs as Tom Jeffes, Adam Payce and Harry Close were replaced by Kieran Alcock, Sergio Magee and Louie McCafferty. Harry Close had a fantastic 60 minutes or so in supporting the various attacks. Louie McCafferty and Sergio Magee in particular were a real nuisance to Baffins when they came on, winning the ball back and relentlessly pressing the Baffins backline. A really solid performance from the lads who came from the Reserves/U18s.

There was still plenty of half chances in the last half an hour, with Blankson, Cooper, Haitham and Magee all having good efforts, but a 5 goal, 5 star performance was how it ended. On to the third round, with the draw likely to occur next week.

Full Time – Baffins Milton Rovers 0-5 Moneys