Somerset Trojans 5 YMSC 0

Damon Swan scored a hat-trick as Somerset Trojans cruised past Yong Men’s Social Club in the FA Cup first round at Somerset Cricket Club on Saturday night.

College student Justin Corday and Jemiko Harvey-Outerbridge scored either side of Swan’s treble to put the west end club’s name in the hat for the quarter-final draw.

“It was a good result for us,” Trevin Ming, the Somerset captain, said. “We just wanted to get into the next round and that was the job we did tonight. The conditions weren’t the best, but we made do with what we had.”

There was not to be any upset in the first match of the weekend, with the Friendship Trophy champions sending a clear message to both their First Division opponents and their more-fancied rivals that they are about business in the competition. Trojans bossed the match from the opening whistle and should have scored more than what they ended up with, squandering a handful of good chances from promising positions deep in Social Club’s half. They also had a goal disallowed for offside, although the decision was a dubious one.

Corday, who was the maestro in the Trojans midfield, opened the scoring midway through the first half with a well-taken goal, beating Reid Trott, the Social Club goalkeeper, with a strike from just inside the area. Swan got his name on the scoresheet two minutes later, rounding off a fine team goal that dissected the visiting side’s defence. The striker slid in to score from close range. His second would come ten minutes into the second half, with a well-placed header. Swan’s hat-trick goal was his best, wrapping his foot around the ball as he cut in from the right flank and sending curling 20-yard strike across Trott and into the roof of net at the far post.

Not to be outdone, Harvey-Outerbridge would score a similar goal, this time from the left-hand side, leaving Trott a spectator once again.

“The objective was get some other players who don’t play regularly in the team a chance to play,” Ming added. “With Justin being back from school, it was a chance for him to make his mark and he did that.

The match between BAA Wanderers and Robin Hood at Goose Gosling Field on Saturday was postponed because of a waterlogged field.