Late free-kick denies cup progress

The Hares started slowly on a heavy pitch with Hillingdon enjoying the best of possession in the early stages. However, it was through good fortune that the home side found themselves in the lead with less than 20 minutes on the clock. A clear handball was missed by all three officials on the edge of the Harefield penalty area, which led to a Hillingdon forward being brought down by Elliot Dobbs. The penalty was dispatched past Jacob Ballheimer to put the home side 1-0 up.

Harefield took no time to feel sorry for themselves though as Aaron McLeish jinked his way past one man inside the box and was brought down by another to give the Hare's their own chance from the spot to level up the match. Aaron Mcleish stepped up and smashed the ball low to the keeper's right, leaving the score at 1-1 going into half time.

With a slight tactical change, Harefield started to enjoy more of the ball and created a number of good opportunities to take the lead. Steven Green probably had the best of the lot as the ball not falling kindly meant he had to hit a weak strike with his unfavoured left foot.

With the Hares probing and Hillingdon not providing too much of a threat, Sam Shaw picked up the ball inside the opposition half and was able to find Adam Willis. After Willis' effort was blocked, the ball fell kindly to Luke Baldwin on the edge of the box to fire a volley past the keeper and take the lead with 20 minutes remaining.

The rest of the second half saw Hillingdon looking to get men forward and find an equaliser but were doing little to threaten the Harefield goal. With 93 minutes on the clock and the Hares 30 seconds away from booking a place in the final, Cristian Barrett brought down his man 25 yards out to give Hillingdon a free kick and one final chance at taking the game to penalties. Hillingdon man Andrew Harewood floated in what looked like a tame free kick but Ballheimer was unable to stop it from deflecting off the crossbar and into the back of the net.

With no time left on the clock, the tie would be decided by a penalty shootout. Perry Price and Luke Baldwin both saw their spot-kicks well saved by the Hillingdon keeper and Ballheimer, who did save one, was unable to prevent defeat.