Robin Hood 5

Hamilton Parish 1

It may have been close in the first match at Wellington Oval when Hamilton Parish came from two goals down to force a replay, but last night’s FA Cup replay was a one-sided as the scoreline suggests.

Lejuan Simmons struck a hat-trick at Goose Gosling Field to lead Robin Hood into the semi-finals of the competition.

After stand-in goalkeeper Timmy Figureido was forced to back-peddle to tip a dangerous Chris Caisey lob over the crossbar after just 48 seconds, Hood set about taking control of the match, scoring three times in 12 minutes to knock the stuffing out of Parish.

Nathan Peskett scored the first of his two goals in the tenth minute when he met a good cross from Simmons and steered his strong header into the far bottom corner. Marcelos Thomas, who had a good game in the Robin Hood midfield, started the move that created the second goal when he fed a long pass to the right flank to Simmons.

Simmons cut in before smashing a volley from 30 yards that dropped inside the far post, leaving Nigel Burgess, the Parish goalkeeper, flat-footed. The Hood pair of Peskett and Simmons continued to cause the Parish defence problems as Peskett met a cross from the right to power his header past Burgess as the defence was again stretched.

Peskett went close to completing his hat-trick moments later, but he poked his near post effort wide after a short pass from Simmons.

Robin Hood lost some of their momentum early in the second half as Parish continued to be positive, creating a good chance when substitute Zion Tucker drove his effort just over the bar during a good spell for the visitors.

Gradually, Hood took control again, Burgess making a good diving save to keep out substitute Shannon Burchall’s low shot.

A series of one touches outside the Robin Hood box resulted in striker Donovan Thompson steering his effort past Figureido for one of the best goals of the night in the 81st minute, bringing Parish back to 3-1.

However, the goal was merely a consolation effort as Simmons closed out a good match with two more goals in four minutes to complete his treble. Burgess used his legs to deny Peskett his hat-trick, but couldn’t prevent Simmons from scoring at the near post moments later.

Thompson nearly helped himself to a second goal when he smashed his shot from 25 yards against the crossbar as Parish kept battling in a lost cause.

In the final minute Simmons notched his third of the night when he scored from close range to make it 5-1.

Hood are in the semi-finals with Devonshire Cougars, PHC and Dandy Town, the defending champions.

TEAMS

Scorers

Robin Hood (Peskett 14, 22, Simmons 21, 86, 90)

Hamilton Parish (Thompson 81)

Robin Hood (4-3-3): T Figureido — D Cox, J Titterton, J Bather, E Outerbridge — A Nelson, D Taylor (sub: J Pereira, 62min), M Thomas — N Peskett (sub: C Boyce, 88), T Williams (sub: S Burchall, 62), L Simmons. Substitutes not used: T Dill, C Fosker, P Froncioni, M McGowan. Booked: Taylor.

Hamilton Parish (4-4-2): N Burgess – P Richardson, E Signor, A Smith, J Hunt-Tucker (sub: D Tucker, 58) — C Caisey, M Albouy (sub: K Richardson, 66), K Cann (sub: Z Tucker, 10), I Creighton — D Thompson, M Walker. Substitutes not used: M Ingham, C Wade, T Webb.

Referee: A Augustus.