Freeland bowed out of the Presidents Cup as premier side Bletchingdon performed the ultimate smash and grab. The large crowd were buzzing in anticipation at the thrills and spills of a good cup run.

 The opening exchanges saw Bletchingdon impose their selves on the game, with crazy legs and his centre half partner dominating in the air.

Once Freeland had settled down they began to play the better football and midfield maestro Trigg was at the heart of all the Freeland moves.

Wing backs Reynolds and Crocker were causing the shaky full backs no end of problems, and Crocker came closest to scoring when from an acute angle his cross come shot rebounded off the stanchion. Bletchingdon then had a goal disallowed by the linesman’s flag.

 The rest of the half continued to be played out in the midfield with neither side having many chances, strikers Paulo Saltini and Pete “big time” Higgins were having to make do with long range efforts.

 The second half saw Freeland, who were revelling in the underdog role, up the tempo and take the game to Bletch. Jamie Hodges had the first good chance of the half, when his shot was well saved. Some excellent football on the right wing between Crocker and Brooks saw Trigg go on a mazy run and after a one two with Brooks, Trigg only having the keeper to beat could only drag his shot wide.

 It was no surprise when Freeland took a deserved lead when Striker Higgins found himself with the ball at his feet and managed to bundle his shot in after the keeper had saved his first effort.

Freeland looked good for their goal lead and were soaking up all the pressure and looked to be heading into the next round until a crazy last 5 minutes, which saw Bletchingdon equalise.

Just as the crowd were preparing to settle down for extra time, disaster happened, a cross from the right saw naturist keeper Perkin come out and fail to claim a cross and in the resulting melee the ball was turned into the net.

 With only two minutes left on the clock, club carthorse Si Hole was thrown up front as Freeland pushed for a deserved equaliser. Unfortunately they could not get the goal and were left in shock as they were dumped out of the cup with a smash and grab.

Freeland can take heart from the fact they took the premiership big boys right to the wire and on reflection were hugely unlucky not to be in the hat for the next round.