Teenager Charlie Shepherd pulls off a hat-trick of penalty saves to book US Portsmouth a Hampshire Senior Cup derby at Baffins

The teenager produced a hat-trick of saves to help US beat lower tier Eversley & California on spot-kicks after a 1-1 first round draw in north Hampshire.

Shepherd saved the first two home penalties as US took a 2-0 lead. But Dan Sibley and Moussa Troare saw their efforts saved as the shoot-out went into sudden death.

Jacob Sultani, on as a sub, fired the visitors into a 7-6 lead before Shepherd, 17, made his third stop.

US’ reward is a short trip up the Eastern Road to face Baffins Milton Rovers in the week beginning September 12.

And US boss Fraser Quirke, for one, is relieved not to have another midweek trek.

Due to part of the M3 being closed for roadworks, he didn’t get back home until the early hours of this morning.

‘It was a long way,’ he said. ‘I didn’t get into bed until nearly 1am. Still, at least we came back with a ‘W’.

‘I don’t think I’ll be getting home at 1am the night we play at Baffins!’

He added: ‘We were a little disjointed to start with, we didn’t play as well as we had done in previous weeks. The pitch was rough and bobbly, not conducive to good football.

‘But in the we definitely deserved to win, we were definitely the better side.’

Shepherd had been guilty of misjudging a cross, allowing an Eversley player a tap in approaching half-time.

US forced penalties thanks to a second half leveller from Simon Woods.

Both Sultani and Traore are now to US this season, having previously played for Gosport Borough’s youth teams in the 2020/21 campaign.