AFC Hatfield captain Matt Chalkley tackles his opponent strongly

AFC Hatfield Town exited the Aubrey Cup at the quarter-final stage after a 5-1 home thrashing by Letchworth Garden City Eagles.

AFC Hatfield flick the ball into the box

Town started in a confident mood and during the first half played some tidy football despite the strong wind and did not look like a team that had not played for four weeks.

Ten minutes into the first period, Hatfield deservedly went ahead when Trevor Golder produced a sublime piece of skill and made space for himself before shooting accurately into the top corner of the net from the edge of the penalty area.

Golder nearly doubled Town’s lead but his shot just went wide of the post.

Letchworth were playing some decent football themselves but could find no way through Town’s tight defence and 20 minutes into the first half Hatfield had another good chance to increase their lead when a snap-shot from Stuart McDermott was well-saved by the visiting keeper Dan Eely.

With a minute to go to half-time, it looked like Hatfield would be taking a lead going into the break but it was not to be. A cross from the left was prodded home by Joe de la Salle for the equalising goal which was hard luck on Town who had mostly dominated the first period.

It was a different looking Letchworth side that came out for the second half as they came at Town from the off and 10 minutes into the second period took the lead from a free-kick scored by Ben L’Honore.

Ten minutes later Mitchell Cox made it 3-1 as Hatfield pushed forward leaving gaps at the back.

With 20 minutes remaining, AFC sent on both Russell Paine and Ryan Brandon in place of Chris Impey and Dave McGuinness respectively and despite making great strides to get back into the game found it difficult to create chances.

Lewis Field did have a very good chance to pull one back for Town but Eely produced a fine save to deny him from scoring.

The weather took a turn for the worse in the remaining quarter-of-an-hour of the game with rain, sleet, hail and the continuing strong wind making it impossible to play decent football as the pitch turned into a ploughed field.

With Hatfield tiring and pushing forward it was inevitable that gaps would be left at the back.

These were exploited by Letchworth when both Joe Tyler and Harry Holland netted breakaway goals in the last 12 minutes to make it 5-1 to the visitors at the final whistle.

It was a disappointing scoreline for Town but a flattering one for Letchworth. Town played well in the first half but lack of match practice probably cost them in the end. The GT Towing man of the match was skipper Matt Chalkley.