POWICK were away to Pershore Manor in the quarter-finals of the Martley Cup on a well-maintained first team's pitch at Fladbury.

PERSHORE MANOR RESERVES 1, POWICK 4 (AET)

After last week's league fixture finished with Powick running away with a 6-1 victory, Pershore were determined to get a result and included a number of their first team squad. This showed with the game going into extra time and being very close until the final moments.

The game was highly competitive and hard-fought and with this came numerous fouls for both sides.

Powick opened the scoring through utility man Dean Drinkwater, whose performance up front was outstanding. The goal came from 25 yards out after another foul given away by the Pershore centre half Pugh. Drinkwater curled the ball into the left-hand corner with swerve and power.

Powick had a period of 10 minutes where they created five good chances. Set pieces in particular when Drinkwater's effort was cleared of the line from a Matt Cole cross and Lee Henderson blasted wide from close range.

Sam Dakin came close, a ball came in from Lee Henderson to the back post, but he was prevented from scoring with a last ditch tackle from Pershore Manor's Les Croy.

Pershore responded with some excellent build up play and Powick allowed their striker at the back post a chance to score but Steve Newman stood up and pulled off a brilliant save.

Powick suffered a blow on the hour when Mike Cole was dismissed for a late tackle. This put added pressure on Powick's slender lead and the equaliser came for Pershore after 65 minutes when the home striker latched onto a ball over the top and under pressure from Howes still managed to lob the ball over keeper Steve Newman.

The extra man for Pershore meant the hard-pushed Sam Dakin and Matt Cole had to be replaced with Ben Pearson and Andrew Brown. This change also meant Kevin Downes was pushed into midfield to support Henderson in his battle to grab the winner.

This change seemed to be inspirational as the back three of Dave Beats, Jason Howes and Andy Collard continued to frustrate the Pershore strikers so much that one was dismissed for lashing out at Collard. The teams on equal numbers Powick again started to dominate but were unable to score.

The game went into extra time, and winning the toss, Henderson chose to play up the hill.

Pershore started brightly and created three one-on-one chances to win the game but Steve Newman was more than a match.

The game was getting very tense before Powick scored just before the turnaround. Andy Collard won the ball with an excellent tackle and played the ball to Harvey. He released Andy Brown wide right who then delivered a pinpoint cross to the breaking Harvey who continued his run to slot the ball past the advancing keeper to make it 2-1.

The second half of extra time commenced with Powick playing down the slope and with a more defensive line-up.

Powick though went 3-1 up through the energetic Kevin Downes, who received the ball from Harvey and managed to power his way through two tackles before he side-footed the ball through the keeper's legs.

This goal seemed to knock the wind out of Pershore and Powick grabbed a fourth goal when Dean Drinkwater headed Pearson's excellent free kick in at the near post for his brace.

In the semi-final Powick will be drawn against, West Malvern, Kempsey or Martley Spurs.

Following a two week break, Powick's next fixture is against Oak Apple in the Phipps Cup on January 8.