Last eight beckons for Men's 1s

Sunday saw Redbridge Men's 1st welcome Berkhamsted to the sports centre to face off in the third round of the NOW:Pensions Men's Vase.

The visitors, who share a league with the Stevenage side who Redbridge had dispatched in the first round, looked to be a fairly even match for the home side having seen off Stevenage twice in their league this season.

The match got underway at a quick tempo from the visiting side, several long balls out of the back from their centre back started opening up pockets of space in the Redbridge defence, which lead to an early scare for the home side. An aerial ball to their powerful centre forward was put away, only to be disallowed due to the aerial landing in a crowded area. This should have been the warning shot for Reds to get into action, but somehow despite this in the ensuing ten minutes Reds found themselves two goals down, a short corner strike and a neat reverse strike from their forward after they'd again opened up Reds through the middle.

Finally Reds came back into action, the back line of Kulraj, James Paddon and Michael McMahon were starting to get the ball transfering, and through the the middle Aidie Palmer, Taz Mangat and Andy Pearce starting getting some traction with longer spells of possession.

Reds broke back with a neat short corner finish from Aidie Palmer, striking low into the corner of the goal. At the stroke of half time, Palmer cancelled the lead out completely with a very sharp drag flick finish, again off of a short corner.

Half time was a chance for some stern words, and also recognising the effect of cancelling a two goal lead out. Reds started the second half in the ascendency, capitalising on the fatigue of a side who had battled to a close win the day before, compared to the relatively comfortable 9-0 league victory Reds had overseen.

Neat forward play from an ever interchanging group of Konrad Kowalski, Marc Tovell, Dylan Sandhu, Matt Smylie, Ian Rawlinson and Sunny Rehal meant that Reds kept applying pressure with a fresh batch of subs throughout the half.

Ill discipline from the Reds bench meant stand in captain on the pitch Alex Riddick had an enforced break after a decision was audibly questioned from the bench. Elliot Berkley was able to spring into action as a result and shore up the defence as Reds rode out the pressure.

The breakthrough for Reds came deep into the second half, Marc Tovell finishing a clean set of passing moves across the pitch, and as such this was the hammer blow to the visiting side. Shortly after this the opposition were reduced to ten players and then nine as tiredness led to some sloppy tackling. Reds could have made it four with a penalty stroke that sadly Taz Mangat could not dispatch, and the final minutes being seen out in the opposition half, with Palmer and Rawlinson winding down the clock in the corners to seal the win.

Redbridge will be heading out on the road to the Midlands for the quarter finals, facing Berkswell and Balsall Common on 1st March.