Penn prevail on penalties

It was Penn who struck first. Jeffrey Fordjour opened the scoring after just five minutes, giving the visitors the perfect start.

Samurai responded strongly, however, and turned the game around before half-time. Fabio Galinho Mendes scored twice, in the 13th and 25th minutes, to put the hosts 2-1 ahead.

But Penn refused to let the setback derail the afternoon and hit back just six minutes later. Lennon Moore found the net in the 31st minute to restore parity and ensure the two sides went into the interval level at 2-2.

The second half saw both teams battle hard for the decisive goal, with neither side able to find a breakthrough. There was late drama when Samurai’s Kohki Oda was shown a red card in the 70th minute, but despite playing against 10 men, Penn could not find the winning goal in normal time.

With the scores still level, the tie went to the lottery of a penalty shootout. And what a shootout it was.

Both sides showed tremendous composure from the spot, but it was Penn who prevailed 5-4, with Ben Sturgess calmly converting the decisive penalty to send us through to the next stage of the competition.

We return to league action at home against Burnham on Wednesday.