St Neots Town recorded their biggest FA Cup victory for 14 years as their new-look side cruised to a 6-1 victory at Walsham-le-Willows in their extra preliminary round tie on Friday.

It was the first time their freshly assembled squad had performed together, and the result will give optimism for the upcoming league season in their new surroundings in the Northern Premier League.

Their Thurlow Nunn Eastern Counties League hosts had already played two league fixtures and the first half suggested it was going to take time for the recently assembled St Neots side to gel as a unit.

But after falling behind on 37 minutes to a goal from lively striker Jamie Smith, St Neots responded with two goals in three minutes to lead at half-time and never looked back.

There were impressive contributions all over the field with goalkeeper Jamie Greygoose, the lively Dan Barton and skipper Callum Anderson all performing well and the cash reward for victory also brings a preliminary round home tie with Godmanchester Rovers on August 20.

There was a cautious start to proceedings in terms of goalmouth action and neither side managed a threatening strike on goal in the first 20 minutes although Walsham should have done better with a free kick in a dangerous position that was sent harmlessly wide.

St Neots' main threat seemed to come from Aaron Smith’s trademark lengthy throws that tested the home defence and after 23 minutes a Brandon Njoku shot on the turn was only just too high.
Shots from Callum Anderson and Njoku were blocked by defenders before a long delay as recent signing Theo Sankey-Mensah received lengthy treatment for a hamstring pull and was replaced by Toib Adeyemi as the visitors reorganised their back line.

Henry Harvey saw a lengthy Walsham effort sail harmlessly wide before the home side took the lead as Smith took full advantage of defensive hesitancy to score.

This seemed to spur St Neots into action and three minutes later they levelled when Declan Nche took advantage of a mazy run by Dan Barton to score. Then on 43 minutes Njoku went past two defenders to set up Nche for his second goal.

After the late first half action the restart was relatively calm, and it was not until after both sides had made a substitution around the hour mark that the game came back to life.

Greygoose produced important saves to deny Smith and Oliver McKensie before a fine three-man move on 66 minutes split the home defence as Njoku and Barton combined to set up Trey Charles for a third St Neots goal.

Charles then blocked a goalkeeper’s clearance to go clear but shot wide and another important save by Greygoose kept out a Karl Saffrey header.

After a St Neots corner 11 minutes from time Charles produced the goal of the match with a fierce shot into the far corner of the net to make it 4-1 as the home side tired.

Substitute Saleem Akanbi added a fifth goal a minute into added time after missing a much easier chance seconds earlier and Charles rounded things off with a penalty deep into injury time to complete his hat-trick.

St Neots: Greygoose, Sackey-Mensah (Adeyemi 26), Tarpey, Anderson, Lewis, Smith, Barton, Nche, Njoku (Mason 77), Charles, Osei (Akanbi 62). Unused subs: Stallard, Hassanally, Bent.

Referee: Chris Severino (Cambridge).

Attendance: 142.