Below-par Old Meadonians' cup interest is over for the season after going down 3-1 in Saturday's AFA Middlesex & Essex Senior Cup quarter-final at Old Parkonians.

The contrast between the two sides could not have been more stark with Meads struggling for cohesion and seemingly unable to find the net against a team belying their third division status, unbeaten in the league, with a tally of more than 50 goals in all competitions.

The visitors were one down after ten minutes with keeper Simon Greening holding his hand up for not cutting down the angle on his near post and Rob Tromcons squeezed the ball home.

Before the break it was a just two when the luckless Greening was comprehensively lobbed by the oportunistic Tromcons.

Harsh words at half time led to a concerted but fruitless push by Meads for 15 minutes, giving hopes of a revival but brought to an abrupt end by a breakaway goal from Chris Sharkey.

The introduction of walking wounded Lawrie Pointer with 10 minutes to go saw him bundle the ball in for a consolation goal just before the whistle.

The struggle is not over for Meads as they now need to repair their league position.

Team: Greening, Palmer, Thompson, Japp, Graham, (Pointer), Costello, Gerrish, Jones, Rhone, Glover, (Eguae), Hawkins.