Olly McDougall gave CSKA an early lead with an emphatic finish cutting in from the right after a perfectly weighted pass from Olly Arnold. Arnold was then on the scoresheet himself 10 minutes later when his excellent press forced an error from the ANP goalkeeper, but despite still having plenty to do, Olly kept his cool head and slotted the ball into the gaping goal.

The game opened up as the half drew on and ANP looked a threat with their freescoring strike partnership, one such move cut the defence apart, but was stopped by a strong hand from Phil Luengtin.

ANP looked a threat from set pieces and long throw-ins, which the CSKA defence had to endure time and time again. Their first goal eventually came from a set-piece as CSKA failed to get full clearance and the rebound was prodded home despite Connor Williams’s best efforts on the goal line.

CSKA were unphased and went back on the ascendancy themselves, Mark Bell in the central midfield role making one of his majestic glides up the pitch before slipping the ball in to Olly Arnold who almost got on the end to add to his tally. Brad Parker was putting himself about superbly, recycling the ball and even making (probably) his first ever slide tackle! The constant pressing and harassing all meant that balls to the front men weren’t great or just overhit, allowing CSKA to restart in control of possession.

A third goal would come from a set piece, and in what was probably one of the most popular goals ever scored at CSKA Carnabys, Jack Ellis playing his last game for CSKA and wearing the captains armbands poked the ball in under the ANP keeper to make it 3-1 going into half-time.

ANP pushed on a bit more in the second half, recognising their own threat from set-pieces and long balls forward, but they struggled to cope with Westerman, Ellis and Williams who were we’ll organised, winning most aerial duels, which either resulted in winning back possession or having the strikers facing away from goal.

Olly Arnold was hungry for more and was very unfortunate not to add to his tally when his delicious mid air flick off a Dave Payne corner looped over the keeper’s head only to be cleared off the line. And instead of goal 4-1 up, ANP worked the ball forward from this clearance and gave themselves hope as they made it 3-2.

As you’d expect though, Olly Arnold would be back, and a nice pass from Hiran Mistry played him through to bury it past the helpless keeper. And he even finally got his set-piece goal, this time with a header from a Dave Payne corner.

ANP had a late resurgence and pegged it back to 5-4, but as they physically tired and CSKA rang in the final changes, Caine Ward’s desire and high press on the keeper cause a poor clearance, but like Arnold in the first half there was still a lot of work to do, but he kept his calm and floated in an inch-perfect cross onto the head of Amit Patel to make it 6-4 and ensure qualification to the Quarter-Final.