Football: Hopwood Hall 10 - 0 Blackburn

Joe Richards glides past two before providing an assist

Hopwood Hall College started their ECFA League Cup campaign with a convincing win over Blackburn College.

After missing out on the ECFA Cup last season, Hopwood Hall were keen to start their cup run on the front foot.

From the first minute they played a high press to pin Blackburn into in their own area, but the East Lancashire side stayed compact and denied Hopwood any clear chances at goal.

It was not until the 25th minute that Eloge Ombougno broke the deadlock, followed shortly by a Jake Frost strike from 30 yards out, making it 2-0 at half time.

Within the first minute of the second half, new boy Adam Knott scored the first of what would be a hat-trick.

From there the floodgates opened.

Joe Doran made it four in the 51st minute, followed by captain Ben Matthews in the 60th. Jake Frost again in the 61st, Kyle Robinson in the 67th, Adam Knott in the 80th and Abdul Muqeem in the 83rd. The scoring was completed by Adam Knott in the 92nd minute, with a low strike for his hat-trick.

Hopwood Hall Football Academy Manager, Rob Johnson, was  impressed with the team’s performance, he said: "In terms of our performance, it has been a good start to the only silverware that evaded us last season but it is just that, a start. There is a long way to go yet and the team needs to keep up the hard work for us to get where we want to be.”