Weston comfortably progressed to the next round of the FA Cup with a 3-0 victory over Banbury United.

WESTON-S-MARE 3

BANBURY UNITED 0

WESTON strolled into the next round of the FA Cup as they swept aside their Oxfordshire visitors, who are bottom of the Southern Premier League, in a one-sided game. They also picked up a valuable £3,500 in prize money.

The Seagulls could have easily doubled the score as the Banbury goal bore a charmed life, particularly in the first half, when several attempts were somehow cleared off the line with the defence in disarray.

From the side that lost at Chelmsford, both Jamie Lucas and Pierce Mitchell were unavailable, and Aaron Brown and Alec Fiddes were dropped to the bench, so Sam Teale, Conor O’Sullivan, latest signing Corey Williams and Jake Harris were all in the starting line-up.

In the opening minutes, Dayle Grubb went close from Jacob Cane’s pass and Weston opened their account on 11 minutes when Harris beat visiting keeper Leigh Bedwell on his near post from Grubb’s first corner.

After that, Grubb, Williams, McClennan, Harris and Cane peppered the Banbury goal and several other attempts were just off target.

The Banbury defence held out to the 32nd minute when a flowing move down the right, involving McClennan and Cane, was finished when Grubb put Harris through to beat Bedwell on his far post from close range.

At the start of the second half, Banbury made a double substitution and minutes later made a third, and came more into the game, but they failed to break down the Weston back four and had to be content with substitute David Lynn and Arron Wickham testing home keeper Luke Purnell from distance, while they also forced a couple of corners.

Williams had the ball in the Banbury net on 53 minutes from another Grubb corner, but the effort was ruled offside.

Weston completed the scoring on 69 minutes when Clayton Fortune broke up an attempted Banbury attack, found Harris who raced unmarked into the penalty area and beat Bedwell.

WESTON STATS

Goals: Weston, Harris (11, 69), Williams (32).

Shots on target: Weston 11, Banbury 3.

Shots off target: Weston 10.

Corners: Weston 6, Banbury 5.

Offsides: Weston 3.

Free kicks conceded: Weston 11, Banbury 15.

Referee: Steven Plane (Tewkesbury). An easy game to control. Did a good job.

Bookings: Weston, O’Sullivan, Mawford. Banbury, Martin.

Attendance: 279.

Weston squad: Purnell, Teale, O’Sullivan (Llewellyn 59), Mawford, Jordan, Fortune, McClennan, Cane, Williams (Bath 70), Grubb (Ash 65), Harris. Subs (not used): Brown, Fiddes, Camper.

WESTON have a busy Vanarama Conference south programme beginning on Saturday with a visit from newly-promoted Wealdstone, who are bottom of the table with only one win.

On Tuesday, October 7, Weston travel to Maidenhead United, who are one place below the Seagulls in the table, only on goal difference.