Bristol Churches FA Cup First Round

Castle Green 3 Thornbury Baptist 5

A RUTHLESS first-half display of finishing saw Thornbury register their first Bristol Churches FA Cup win in four years at Whitehall on Saturday.

This was the good old-fashioned definition of a game of two halves as Thornbury blew away their opponents for the latter 25 minutes of the first-half to take an ultimately unassailable 5-0 lead into the interval.

Thornbury had actually started pretty poorly and might have been behind but for some solid defending from Dan Blanchard on his competitive debut for the club, alongside captain Nick Tymko.

Castle Green were on top but adopting a high defensive line with that pressure and they were exposed by the pace of John Cordle on 19 minutes when he raced onto the end of a James Hancox through-ball, beat the defender with a composed turn inside the box and deftly flicked the ball past the keeper for a crucial lead.

It rocked the hosts and suddenly almost every Thornbury attack seemed to conclude with the ball in the Castle Green net.

The second, on 24 minutes, was scored by Cordle.

Just two minutes later Steve Clare had one himself.

Thornbury made it four in ten minutes when Cooke fed Hancox and he smashed home with his right foot from the edge of the box and they should have had a fifth when Cordle rounded the keeper, who hauled him to the floor with no-one else within ten yards.

Thornbury were to have that fifth before the break when Stu Kelly squared for Cooke to score inside the near post. The second half was a very different story and the character from the Castle Green side restored some pride before actually sensing an opportunity to force extra-time as the game reached eighty minutes.

They scored three times but Thornbury hung on.