PETER MORRISON TROPHY ROUND THREE
FC TEAM A 3 HENDON UNITED SPORTS CLUB A 5

David Garbacz heaped praise on wonder kid DAVID SEITLER as holders Hendon booked their place in round four at the expense of Premier Division rivals FC Team A.

The JC Player of the Week hit the target three times, with the other goals coming through Ben Lauffer and Avidan Last.

Missing key players Russell Corin and Greg Corin, Hendon soon found themselves two goals down on a bobbly pitch, which Garbacz described as "a big leveller" as the visitors struggled to play their fluid passing game.

FC Team A were really up for the game and made a flying start, closing Hendon down all over the pitch. It was Hendon old boy Yoav Lebens who headed Team in front from a corner, followed by a Bobby Abrams strike into the top right-hand corner. As the half-time whistle sounded, Team knew the job was only half done.

Enter Ben Lauffer - who Henedon signed for a second time a couple of weeks ago - and after coming on at half-time, he showed his enormous class with a fantastic strike to get the Reds right back into it just five minutes into the second half.

This gave Hendon the lift and belief that they needed, and from then on it turned into the Dave Seitler show.

Garbacz told JC Sport: "I've been banging on about this kid for a few weeks now, but if there has ever been a better hat-trick scored at this level then I'd love to have seen it." He produced three quite incredible finishes, plus another typically cool one from Avidan Last completely turned the game on its head and booked Hendon's place in the next round.

Hendon boss David Garbacz told JC Sport: "We showed fantastic quality to pull this tie around, when at half-time it looked like we could well be heading out."

"What was looking like a very dodgy situation at half-time turned out to be a nice comfortable win.

"FC Team gave us real problems in the first half and we will need to be wary of them in the three more games we have against them this year.

"Credit overall to both teams for putting on a great match on a terrible pitch, and also credit should go to Martin Lavender for making sure the game got played and for reffing in typical good strong no-nonsense style.

"Meanwhile, we move on to the quarters of the National cup and the squad is getting better and stronger each week.

"The treble, treble dream is still on - we are not setting any targets but the first half of the season is nearly over and we are liking where we are. Happy Chanukah to all."

Team boss Ben Gilbey told JC Sport: "It was extremely disappointing and hard to take. However, coming away from the game, we know that it could have gone differently on another day, and that for 60 minutes we matched and were probably better than the team which won everything last year.

"We are still a new team and it is our first year in the Premier Division, we are getting better every week and are certainly a team to be feared."