Saints alive! Crofton’s fourth penalty shoot-out win of the season takes them through to Hampshire Trophy final

Lavin saved one penalty and saw other one miss the target as lower tier Crofton defeated Hampshire Premier League Senior Division leaders Colden Common 5-4 on spot-kicks.

That followed a 2-2 draw at Seafield Park, which saw Crofton recover from conceding early on to lead after 20 minutes. First, Malin Bowman headed in a Harry Burns cross and then Burns struck after Jake Steel’s shot had hit the bar.

Common, four points clear of Locks Heath at the top of the Senior table, levelled shortly after the restart.

Following Lavin’s shoot-out save, Kacper Nasiadka kept his cool to send Crofton through to the final against either Ringwood Town Development or Tadley Calleva Reserves.

Remarkably, it was the FOURTH time Crofton - in their first season in Division 1 of the HPL - had beaten a Senior Division club on penalties in cup action this season. And Lavin has saved at least one spot-kick in all of them.

Crofton had previously beaten Locks Heath in the quarter-finals of the Trophy, following a 0-0 draw and Meon Milton and Harvest in the Hampshire Premier League Cup.

Saints remain on course for a potential hat-trick of Trophy, League Cup and Division 1 promotion.

Accepted into the HPL after winning last season’s Southampton Senior League title, Darren Clark’s squad - which includes his sons George and Harvey - are fourth in Division 1.

They trail second-placed Hedge End Town by nine points but, due to their cup runs, have five games in hand.

Crofton secretary John Mundy said: “We have done better than we thought we would, but I knew we had decent players and a decent side.

“Going into the league, we had no idea what the level or standard was. We’d just take it as it comes, if we finished halfway so be it.

“We just wanted to play different teams and go to different venues, we just wanted the experience of all that.”

Crofton applied to join the HPL in the summer of 2023, after establishing themselves as a leading light in the Gosport, Fareham & Solent Sunday League. But due to the GFS League not being a HPL ‘feeder’ league, they had to look elsewhere.

In Clark’s first season in charge, they won 13 of their 14 league games, finishing 11 points clear of runners-up Warsash Wasps. They also won the League Cup, beating Braishfield 3-0 at AFC Totton’s Snows Stadium.

“The players are all mates on and off the pitch, which helps with the success we’ve had,” explained Mundy, whose Gosport-born dad Albert played 51 times for Pompey in the 1950s.

“Some of the players have been with us since they were five.”

This Saturday Crofton host table-topping Broughton, who are 13 points ahead of them but having played four games more.