St Ives Town set out on the road to recovery last night.

A flurry of second-half goals earned a 3-0 success against lower-level Bedford Town in a Southern League Challenge Cup second round tie at ProEdge Westwood Road.

And it was two of the six players in Ricky Marheineke’s side, who missed their weekend debacle at the hands of Kettering in the Premier Division, that did the damage.

Josh Dawkin, who had been banned last Saturday, broke the deadlock five minutes after the break before a brace from striker Dubi Ogbonna, who was unavailable to face his former club Kettering, sealed Saints’ passage.

Ogbonna struck two minutes before and six minutes after the hour mark - the second of his goals arriving from the penalty spot - on a night when St Ives’ success was marred by a broken collarbone for substitute Scott Sinclair in the final minute.

Marheineke said: “A result and performance like this was just what we needed. It was a really good response after what happened on Saturday.

“We made a lot of changes and we were a completely different proposition with our strike partnership of Dubi and Danny Kelly available. They are an excellent pairing and Josh was also outstanding.

“We could easily have been three up by half-time, and we could also have scored a couple more in the second half. A scoreline of 6-0 or 7-0 would not have been an unfair reflection of the game.”

It was also a good night for Godmanchester Rovers as they caused something of a shock in Hunts Senior Cup.

The Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division strugglers triumphed 2-1 at United Counties League Premier Division top-six side Yaxley to reach the semi-finals.

Josh Sewell fired Rovers into an early advantage that was doubled by Arran Mackay just after the hour.

The hosts halved their arrears late on, but it was not enough to stop Chris Hyem’s men from advancing into the last four where they join Eynesbury Rovers, St Ives Town and St Neots Town.