Bishop’s Stortford blitz Cornard United with five goals in 20 minutes to record their biggest FA Cup home win in 56 years
Bishop’s Stortford recorded their biggest FA Cup home win in 56 years with a 5-0 drubbing of lower-level Cornard United in the first qualifying round on Saturday.
Blues blitzed their Suffolk visitors by scoring all five goals in a 20-minute spell from the end of the first half and registered their first clean sheet of the season.
Cole Dasilva and Charlie Castle netted their first ever goals for the club, Brad Russell scored his fourth of the campaign then Kian Harness bagged a brace to make it three goals in two games. Luke Warner-Eley registered a hat trick of assists.
It was Stortford’s largest victory in the competition in front of their fans since they thrashed Corinthian Casuals 9-0 at Rhodes Avenue in the second qualifying round in 1968, and their biggest home or away since a 6-1 win at Chipstead in the third qualifying round in 2013.
The game turned on a five-minute spell at the end of the first half when the Ards, who ply their trade two steps below Blues in the Thurlow Nunn Eastern Counties League Premier Division, had three chances to take the lead.
First, Charlie Lindoe beat the offside trap and raced through on goal, but Stortford keeper Charlie Binns made himself big and saved with his legs. Then, on 43 minutes, Jack Graham’s early low shot from range nearly sneaked through Blues’ shot-stopper into the bottom right corner, but smart reactions saw him push the ball around the post. And in the 44th minute Josh Hughes swung a boot at a right-wing corner, but the ball was blocked on the line by Warner-Eley and Binns dived on it.
The visitors were left ruing those missed opportunities when the hosts scored twice in two minutes. Blues took the lead when Warner-Eley’s deep cross from the left was met beyond the back post by Dasilva, who volleyed the ball back across goal into the left-hand side of the net.
Warner-Eley was provider once again when his injury-time free kick was glanced in by Castle at the near post to give Steve Castle’s men a two-goal cushion at the break.
Into the second half, Castle’s through ball was deflected into the path of Russell, who curled it into the bottom right corner from the left side of the box to make it 3-0 after 52 minutes.
In the 59th minute, Harness scored Blues’ fourth, cutting in off the left wing, going past a defender and finding the corner of the net. His second came six minutes later with an athletic diving header from a right-wing cross.
The margin of victory could have been greater. Fabio Virciglio’s first action saw him run through on goal but pull his shot wide of the left post, then fellow substitute Sami Moutawafiq shot narrowly wide from a tight angle after a superb diagonal through ball from Virciglio.
Warner-Eley’s curling effort from outside the box was parried by Cornard keeper Ollie Green for a corner. Stortford skipper Jake Thompson was first to the ball from Dasilva’s vicious in-swinging kick into the six-yard box but headed over the bar. Then the captain’s header from another corner was brilliantly saved by Green.
The Blues will learn the identity of their second qualifying round opponents in the draw on Monday (Sept 2) and host St Ives Town in the Pitching In Southern League Premier Central next Saturday (Sept 7).
Blues: Binns, Dasilva, Warner-Eley, Oluwatimilehin (Amu 56), Thompson (c), Haines, Charles (Rotimi 72), Harness, Russell (Leggatt 78), Castle (Virciglio 66), Taylor (Moutawafiq 60). Unused subs: Ogwuazor, Cook.
Cornard United: Green, Girling, McFaull (Spurling 74), Hughes, Berkane, Culleton (c), Lindoe, Soraf (James 84), Arnold, Shawyer (Joyce 60), Graham (Nasso 60). Unused subs: Kemp, Lees
Attendance: 309.