Tottenham Hotspur put an end to the eighth-tier Marine FC’s dream FA Cup run. Carlos Vinicius scored a hat trick for the Premier League club in Sunday’s 5-0 third-round tie victory.
In the opening minutes, the Non-League hosts stood firm. Marine had parked their bus well until conceding their first. Spurs naturally dominated possession from the start, but home keeper Bayleigh Passant had held comfortably to a few attempts from distance.
But Spurs took the lead on 24 minutes when Dele Alli’s cross found Vinicius right in front of the goal. Vinicius sidelined Marine keeper Bailey Passant and scored to make it 1-0 from close range. The first goal opened the floodgates for Tottenham, who quickly scored two more from close range. One of them was a Vinicius tap in and an expertly taken Lucas Moura free-kick to go 3-0 shortly after the half-hour mark.
Before half-time with a calm finish, Vinicius completed his hat trick. A curling a volley around Passant to give the visitors a four-goal lead heading into the break. Alli was a class above as he carved the opening for Spurs’ anxiety-erasing opening two goals. Carlos Vinicius was the chief beneficiary of Alli’s awakening, the Brazilian’s hat-trick coming in the space of 13 minutes.
The second half of 16-year-old Spurs debutant Alfie Devine’s second-half goal saw the match hit the final scoreline. Jose Mourinho’s men now await the fourth-round draw of the FA Cup to see who they will face next.
In the English football pyramid, Marine, who play in the Northern Premier League, Division One North West, was 161 positions below Spurs.
