Crusaders march on in the FA Cup

Jon Boardman and Ian Herring celebrated their confirmation as joint managers after impressing everyone in a caretaker role, with a splendid FA Cup victory over Gloucester City, dominating the game throughout to record a 3-0 victory, although the home side were down to ten men after centre-back Sam Avery was sent off after 38 minutes for denying Louie Soares a clear goal-scoring opportunity, Stefan Brown scoring from the penalty spot to put us two nil up. He also scored our third goal 20 minutes from the end to deny the home side any chance of a comeback.

To cap it all, with Jon Boardman still unfit, Ian Herring was judged man of the match and we await Monday’s draw with bated breath.
It was a bright, but chilly afternoon as we visited Evesham’s Jubilee Stadium where Gloucester are ground-sharing, whilst they wait for the completion of a new stadium, with supporters travelling on the team coach filling all the available seats.
Marcus Beauchamp, in goal for the unavailable Lewis Ward, was in early action, comfortably cutting out an in-swinging cross, but we were soon on the attack, Callum Willmoth shooting well wide, and Matt Partridge firing a free-kick straight at Tom Hadler in the home goal, but we soon took the lead, Nicholas Bignall turning neatly past his marker to round the keeper after 18 minutes scoring from a tight angle.

Matt Partridge, making a welcome return from a hamstring injury, tweaked it again and, although apparently not badly hurt, went off as a precaution and will hopefully soon be back in action.

We made it 2-0 after 38 minutes when Louie Soares nipped inside centre-back Sam Avery who hooked him down, earning a straight red card, leaving Brown to beat Hadler from the penalty spot.

We dealt easily with a couple of City attacks to go in at the interval comfortably ahead, but with nothing to lose the Tigers pushed forward, but failed to create any real chances in the second half, but one is always conscious that a two-goal lead is often a dangerous one, until Stefan Brown picked up a loose ball and fired past Hadler after 70 minutes to make victory certain, a good all-round performance, arguably our best of the season, and the players applauded our vocal fans at the final whistle.

Team;Marcus Beauchamp, Rhys Tyler (c) Paul Stonehouse, Ian Herring, Harvey Read, ,,Matt Partridge(Jordan Simpson),James Clark, Callum Willmoth(Scott Rees),Stefan Brown, Nicholas Bignall(Jamal Lawrence)l Louie Soares.

Unused Subs;Tom Meechan, Garrett Kelly ,Luke Hopper, Jon Boardman.