A PRESTIGIOUS parks football cup final descended into farce when five players were sent off – with the winners finishing with just eight men.

Bournemouth Electric reserves staged a dramatic fightback to see off Southampton-based AFC Horns on penalties in an incident-packed Hampshire Junior B Cup final.

The Sparkies, who had Ben Hatch and Jamie Beamish dismissed, wiped out a two-goal deficit in the last four minutes against a Horns side who capitulated after Martyn Randall and Danny Smith had seen red.

Electric’s Rafael Santos, booked for taking off his shirt after scoring the equaliser, then received a second yellow card from referee Federico Ardiles for kicking the ball away in extra-time to complete the infamous five.

The game had looked out of reach for the BFA Division Six champions but Dan Baguley’s header and Santos’ last-ditch strike forced extra-time.

With no further score following the flurry of dismissals, Sparkies goalkeeper Ryan Thorpe emerged as the hero, saving two penalties in the shoot-out before scoring the winning spot-kick.

Relieved Electric boss Steve Blyth admitted his side had been fortunate to escape with the trophy, but hailed the revival as the best he had ever witnessed.

Blyth told the Daily Echo: “It was the most fantastic game of football and the greatest comeback I have ever been involved with.

“To be fair, the referee said he was going to apply the letter of the law on bad language before kick-off and he stuck to his guns.

“We have no complaints at all but I think the opposition will have a few. We were fortunate, particularly with their second red card.

“You could tell they were in shock after being in such a commanding position – their goalkeeper didn’t have a save to make for the first 80 minutes – but we have to take our hats off to AFC Horns because they applauded us off and took it on the chin.”

Meanwhile, furious Horns boss O’Dell launched a scathing attack on referee Ardiles after confirming he had filed a complaint with the Hampshire FA.

“It was a farce. If it had been 11 against 11, we would have beaten them,” said O’Dell.

“Danny Smith was dragged all over the place and then got sent off for headbutting when it was obvious he had never headbutted anyone. The referee was not up to standard.”

The Hampshire FA were unable to confirm whether the card count had set the record for a county final but could not find another showpiece with five dismissals for incidents during play.

Spokesman Dan Berry said: “It is out of the ordinary and I would be surprised if it has happened many times.”

Sparkies will face a standard multi-player misconduct charge after six separate players entered the referee’s notebook but should escape with a warning. Both teams also had three players booked.