Brampton 0 St Neots Town 6 Hunts Senior Cup Second Round SAINTS manager Iain Parr was in bullish mood as his side cruised into the next round of the Hunts Senior Cup. With a fully-fit squad to choose from, Parr said he was confident his side could put tog

Brampton 0 St Neots Town 6

Hunts Senior Cup Second Round

SAINTS manager Iain Parr was in bullish mood as his side cruised into the next round of the Hunts Senior Cup.

With a fully-fit squad to choose from, Parr said he was confident his side could put together a good run of results going into the Christmas programme to maintain their position near the top of the United Counties League.

He said: "We are on a good run of results at the moment and it is important we keep that going through a tricky period coming up."

On Saturday at Rowley Park Parr was able to change his side around for the visit of Brampton, in a game that was a tale of two goalkeepers.

For the home side, 17-year-old Jordan Houghton, son of former manager Scott, came into the line-up with Jon Chatfield resting a thigh strain.

Meanwhile, in goal for Brampton was veteran Richard King, 41, who pulled off a string of saves to help keep the score down.

Brampton had conceded home advantage for this tie and got off to the worst possible start, conceding twice inside the first 10 minutes.

Acting Saints skipper Mark Barry stepped up to score from the penalty spot after Barrington Belgrave had been upended before Barry scored again when sent through by Belgrave.

The pressure continued and the overworked King made a fine near-post save from a Ryan Francis cross and then threw himself full length to push away a spectacular diving header from Kevin Ashby.

Clive Day was booked for a frustrated tackle on Francis on the half-hour and a minute later Francis put his name on the scoresheet with an unstoppable volley after the visiting defence failed to clear a Danny Marlow cross.

On 35 minutes the game was all but over as Ashby tapped home a David Fisk cross to make it 4-0.

However, Brampton finished the half with a flourish, producing their only two genuine scoring chances of the match. After Neil Wasahlo had produced their first shot on goal after 38 minutes, he set up Stuart Harris for a volley that was acrobatically pushed over the bar by rookie goalkeeper Houghton.

The second half saw the tempo slow as Brampton looked happy to defend deep in their half.

After 62 minutes King made a point-blank save to turn a close-range Steve Kuhne header onto the bar but from Fisk's following corner, Kuhne was left unmarked at the far post to head in the fifth goal.

Six minutes later Day picked up his second yellow card for dissent before Chris Garwell scored his first Saints goal since October 6 to wrap up the win.

Saints were due to host high-flying Desborough as The Hunts Post went to press and travel to struggling Raunds on Saturday.