Buildbase FA Vase

1st Round Qualifying

Thornbury Town 6

Cheltenham Saracens 2

Having fallen at the first hurdle in the FA Cup, Thornbury were hoping to get a bit closer to Wembley in the FA Vase and they advanced to the second qualifying round with an emphatic victory over Cheltenham Saracens, writes Mark Franklin.

It was slightly against the run of play when some good football released Thornbury's Toby Bennett on the right and his chipped cross was met by the head of Harry Brock who found the bottom corner.

On 32 minutes, Harlie Price went down in the Town box, but the referee waved his appeals away and almost immediately the ball was in the net at the other end when a Brandon Benjamin run and pull-back found Jim Brock who in turn found the bottom corner.

Five minutes later it was 3-0 when Craig Lancastle's well placed shot went in off the far post

The first-half action wasn't over though and on 41 minutes Parkin was this time adjudged to have brought down the Cheltenham forward. The keeper was sent to the sin-bin for protesting with Benjamin replacing him between the sticks - only for Kai Mahon to slot the ball past him

Parkin was soon back on after his ten minutes in the bin but the start of the second half was uneventful and it was a combination of a Cheltenham sin-bin and the introduction of Hodgson that saw him cut in and shoot low to make it 4-1 on 70 minutes

Farthing replaced Benjamin on 74 minutes and it was only a minute later when he was fouled inside the box with Lancastle doubling his tally with the resulting penalty.

Price made it 5-2 with a clinical finish but Thornbury were still not done when in stoppage-time Farthing scored via the underside of the bar.

Thornbury will travel to Wokingham in the next round on September 14.