Hunts Senior Cup Second Round Brampton 0 St Neots Town 6 A BRAVE goalkeeping performance from veteran Brampton keeper Richard King could not stop his side going down heavily at Rowley Park. Brampton had relinquished home advantage for their tie against th

Hunts Senior Cup Second Round

Brampton 0 St Neots Town 6

A BRAVE goalkeeping performance from veteran Brampton keeper Richard King could not stop his side going down heavily at Rowley Park.

Brampton had relinquished home advantage for their tie against the top-ranked side in Huntingdonshire and with it any real chance of an upset disappeared.

St Neots manager Iain Parr took the opportunity to try out some new faces, including 17-year-old goalkeeper Jordan Houghton, son of former manager Scott.

Brampton got off to a nightmare start when they went two goals down inside the opening 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 a fierce volley after the visiting defence failed to clear a Danny Marlow cross.

After 35 minutes the game was all but over as Kevin 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 managed 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 on to the bar but from David Fisk's 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.

Parr said: "Brampton came to play football and were a credit to the game. Richard King played a blinder in goal for them and we had to work hard for the win.