Fareham out to avenge heartache of last year

The Henry Cort side play Trojans in the quarter-finals of the competition at 1.15pm today.

Fareham will play the winners of Winchester and Bournemouth in the semi-final if successful, which will be played later in the afternoon.

The club have not won the county tournament for two years and are desperate to wrestle the title back from rivals Havant.

They only resumed training last week but Barnes has noticed a real hunger and desire to avenge last season’s heavy semi-final defeat to Trojans.

Performance director Ben Barnes said: ‘The guys are very wary and won’t be taking Trojans lightly.

‘They trained really hard this week.

‘They haven’t won the cup for a couple of years and I can sense there’s a real desire to take it seriously this year.

‘It’s a competition that the club definitely want to win.

‘Trojans have done pretty well this year and they’re a decent team so we certainly shouldn’t take it lightly.

‘The players will want to go to the final but we can’t think about that yet.

‘They will defend and play on the counter-attack so we’re going to have to be clever in how we play and make sure we take our chances.’

The quarter-final will be the first of two possible games at Southampton Sports Centre – a format which Barnes feel should change.

He said: ‘Two matches in one day is ludicrous. We’ve got three or four free weeks at the end of the season when we could play. I really think they should look at changing it.’

Craig Simms and Ed Carson are both unavailable.

Havant men start the weekend by playing Southampton in their quarter-final tie at 10.45am and will play the winners of Wimborne Wayfarers and Haslemere in the semi-final if victorious.

On Sunday, Havant Ladies travel to Trojans at 2.30pm for their cup semi-final.

Havant thirds play Isle of Wight at 2.30pm, while the under-16s take on Trojans at 10.30am at the Wellington Sports Ground.