Marine's magical FA Cup journey comes to an end

By James Gordon

Marine's fairytale Emirates FA Cup run came to an end as they fell to a 5-0 defeat to Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur in the third round.

Neil Young's side hosted the fourth-placed Premier League outfit behind-closed-doors at the Marine Travel Arena in a game that displayed the biggest gulf in the cup's history at this stage of the competition.

Jose Mourinho fielded the likes of Lucas Moura, Dele Alli and Moussa Sissoko while Gareth Bale featured from the bench in the second-half, and it was the eight-time FA Cup winners who claimed a 5-0 victory.

Marine striker Neil Kengni almost opened the scoring as he hit the crossbar on the 20th minute, before Carlos Vinícius scored his first of three of the afternoon just three minutes later.

The 25-year-old Brazilian completed his hat-trick in the space of 13-minutes, and Moura added a fourth from a stunning free-kick before the break.

In the second half, 16-year-old substitute Alfie Devine scored his first senior goal for the fifth becoming Tottenham's youngest goalscorer.

Marine can hold their heads high after promoting their club to the world of football, announcing an "official" attendance of 30,697 through virtual tickets, breaking club records.

"An incredible journey," said Marine boss Young.

"It's a great credit to all the players that they've got this far first of all, and obviously to bring Tottenham Hotspur to Marine and Jose Mourinho and his players. I'm proud as punch for the players.

"I'm a bit disappointed. I thought at times we let ourselves down, but we can't be too critical.

"You're playing against top class players and you've got to give great credit to Tottenham for bringing the team they did and Jose Mourinho who said he will give us great respect and bring the players who we want to see from a player's perspective and a fan's perspective.

"We're a little disappointed in there as we thought we could have done a bit better with a couple of the goals, but in general the lads have ran their socks off and they couldn't do anymore and that's what they've done since day one."

Where next?

Basford continue FA Youth Cup journey Basford United's academy side host West Bromwich Albion in the third round of the FA Youth Cup on Tuesday night.
Stuart Pearce backs Marine Stuart Pearce is backing Marine’s players to showcase the depth of talent in non-league football in their fairytale FA Cup third round clash with Tottenham Hotspur.

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