Locks Heath have ‘full confidence’ they can pull off Hampshire Premier League Cup shock at Infinity

Brad Stone was on target at Broughton as Locks Heath advanced to the last eight of the Hampshire Premier League's supplementary cup. Picture: Tom Phillips.

The Hampshire League Premier Senior Division pair face off in the quarter-finals of the competition this weekend.

Locks Heath have made incredible strides forward this term and were second in the HPL Senior Division table prior to its curtailment because of the pandemic.

Heath, rock bottom when the 2019-20 HPL season was null and voided, have taken that form into the supplementary cup and reached the quarter-finals with a 5-1 win at lower division Broughton.

Now Whitfield wants Locks to continue their improvements by inflicting defeat on an Infinity side who have only lost one game to HPL opposition since April 2019 - last season’s HPL Cup semi-final defeat to Colden Common.

He said: 'When you get to this stage in any competition you know you’re going to be coming up against good teams. Infinity won’t be wanting to play as, just like we won’t want to be playing them.

‘We know how hard they are to beat, given that they haven’t lost (in the league) in a couple of years.

‘We’ve got full confidence in the lads that we can go there, put on a performance, and get the win we’re looking for.

‘We know how hard that’s going to be as well, it’s going to be a step up from anything we’ve faced in the past few weeks and the lads are going to have to be ready for that.'

Connor Johnson's quickfire double, along with efforts from Jamie Hall, Ben Chambers and Brad Stone, wrapped up the last-16 victory at Broughton.

Whitfield was pleased with the response after Locks had been beaten in their final group game by Moneyfields Reserves.

He added: 'We were expecting a difficult game. We turned up and the pitch wasn’t great, the weather was horrible, so we knew we were going to be in for a bit of a different game than what we’re used to.

‘The lads worked hard, we got off to a very good start and got an early goal which is what we needed to settle everything down.'

Locks drew 0-0 with Infinity last October.

Quarter-finals: Infinity v Locks Heath, Silchester v Headley United, Paulsgrove v Liphook, Bush Hill v Moneyfields Reserves.

Semi-finals (May 22): Infinity/Locks Heath v Silchester/Headley, Bush/Moneyfields v Paulsgrove/Liphook.

Final: May 29.