Solihull Barons 4 – 2 Mk Thunder 

Period Scores: 2 - 1, 1 - 0, 1 - 1 

Penalty Mins:    Solihull Barons 80

MK Thunder 96                      

Shots on Goal:  On Solihull’s Elliot Folley  -14

                        On Solihull’s Ricky Young - 20               

                        On MK Thunder’s Mark Woolf 36                       

Solihull Barons: Robery Eley 2+ 0, Andrew Howarth 1+0, Richard Taylor 1+0, Stephen Rowlands 0+2, Edward Slater 0+1.  

MK Thunder: Peter Tayor 1+0, Tom Roles 1+0, Paul Gore 0+1, Josh White 0+1. 

Man of the Match:          Solihull Barons – Robert Eley

                                    MK Thunder – Keiron Goody 

Thunder made the short road trip up to Solihull to face the Barons for the very first time in their opening cup game of the season. Barons, who were playing in the EPL up until this season, have a good blend of youngsters and experience and play their own kind of intimidating game in their own barn at Hobs Moat.

With players missing, Thunder were not at full strength and at times looked like they had little response to Barons physical play, but it was the Milton Keynes team that opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Tom Roles scored with a shot which deflected off the back of Folley in the Solihull net. The lead was short lived however as less than a minute later Barons were back on level terms through Robert Eley. The home side then took the lead at 12:54 as Solihull’s man of the match Eley netted his second.

In a second period dominated by numerous minor penalties on both sides, the home side extended their lead to 3-1 when Richard Taylor scored at 22:29.

Things heated up even more in the final period as Thunder eventually sprung to life and decided they weren’t going to be intimidated anymore. First Ivan Turan and Solihull’s Richard Turner were sent for an early shower for fighting, and while this was happening, Barons’ Scialdone decided he’d cheap shot Thunder’s Josh White and rip his caged helmet off. Paul Jamiesoin jumped in on Whites behalf and following a brief fight he and Scialdone joined the other two in the changing room.

By mid-period Thunder had reduced the deficit to one goal when a Peter Taylor slapshot found its way through the crowd in front of the Solihull goal and into the back of the net, but Solihull regained the comfort of a two goal lead at 52:19 through an Andrew Howarth goal.

Although Thunder lost 4-2, this was a much improved performance with the Thunder spirit beginning to resurface again.