Tadley pay the penalty again and crash out of North Hampshire Senior Cup

Tadley Calleva’s penalty heartbreak continued this season as they lost their third penalty shoot-out of the season to crash out of the semi-final of the North Hampshire Senior Cup to Romsey Town, writes Max Carter Keall

Toby Gibson converted the winning penalty for the away side, who themselves secured their 4th shoot-out victory of the season, to send his side into the final to play the winner of Basingstoke FC vs Alresford Town FC.

The game itself started with a frantic first five minutes as both sides battled to control the midfield.

After 12 minutes Tadley strung together some neat play at the edge of the area to fashion a chance for Alex Miller with his lob sailing over the bar.

But it was Romsey who broke the deadlock early on through Owen Holloway when he headed home a well struck free kick to give The Town a 1-0 lead.

Romsey then capitalised on their early lead, forcing Shemar Pettet to clear the ball off his own line to avoid the away side going 2-0 up.

Tadley rallied well, building their own pressure half an hour into the game and forcing opposition keeper Miles Bartrum into a succession of excellent saves to keep his side ahead.

Just before half-time Romsey had a penalty shout waved away by the referee and the away side went into the break with a narrow lead.

The second half got underway with an early chance falling to Brad Neal whose header was brilliantly saved by Bartrum before the Romsey keeper produced another fantastic stop from the ensuing corner.

Just ten minutes later Neal was denied again, this time by a block from a Romsey defender to deny a certain equaliser.

The game opened up after this with Romsey launching a counter-attack resulting in a four on one heading towards the Tadley net, only for Jack Odam to slash his effort well wide.

Over the following fifteen minutes chances flew around for both sides, with Romsey’s keeper Bartrum morphing into prime Manuel Neuer and continuing his heroics to deny chance after chance and keep his side’s 1-0 lead intact.

But with eight minutes of regular time to go Tadley’s talismanic centre forward Ben Wright drove a shot goalwards and, despite the keeper getting a hand to it, Tadley finally beat Bartrum’s resolute defence to equalise.

The game was closed out with a final chance for Tadley when Neal’s header grazed the post, but with the result finishing 1-1, the battle for the North Hants Senior Cup went to penalties.

Tadley started the shoot-out confidently, converting their opening two strikes but missing third, while their opposition missed two of their first three strikes including the very first effort.

However from there Romsey proceeded to score four penalties in a row, with Tadley converting three out of their four efforts.

Tadley missed their eighth strike giving Romsey the chance to win the game, and up stepped Toby Gibson to slot the winning penalty to win the shoot-out 6-5 and put Romsey Town into the final of the North Hants Senior Cup.