Grantham Town beat Sherwood Colliery in their FA Cup extra preliminary round replay

Grantham Town head into their opening league game of the season on Saturday buoyed by preserving a proud FA Cup record.

The Gingerbreads defeated Sherwood Colliery on Tuesday night in their extra preliminary round replay at the Meres.

The 4-0 success means Grantham have never exited the cup before the preliminary round stage in 115 campaigns.

Goals from Luke Harris (two), Bailey Baker and Leke Shodunke ensured a comfortable victory ahead of their Northern Premier League Midlands Division opener at home to Walsall Wood on Saturday.

Head coach Louis Bland was pleased with the performance of his side but feels they can still offer more at the weekend.

He said: "It was a really positive night but I do still feel that we can be more positive on the ball and we didn't quite do what we wanted in terms of that.

"I thought we were fantastic out of possession though and our energy levels were superb.

"It was nice to see us score four goals as well, especially with the players we had missing, so that is a real positive."

The Gingerbreads are expected to welcome back Mason Lee and Harry Olivant for their league opener on Saturday.

Rodrigo Goncalves and Sidney Pereira are both rated as 50/50 by Bland after missing the midweek win due to injury.

However, the performance of the players on Tuesday night has left Bland with some tough decisions ahead of the match against Walsall who finished last season in 11th place in the division.

He added: "I said to the players in the pre-match on Tuesday that they could make my life over the next few days really easy or difficult.

"It will be difficult especially in those forward areas where the boys were really good. I thought Leke showed everything that we expected of him when we signed him.

"Max Cook didn't stop running and Lewis Greenfield was superb so the attention will now turn to Saturday."

It took the Gingerbreads just five minutes to break the deadlock on Tuesday night as a corner was only cleared out as far as Harris who collected possession just outside the area before curling a sublime finish into the top corner of the Sherwood net.

The lead was doubled five minutes later as a near post corner was punched out by Sherwood goalkeeper Jordan Pierrepont into the path of Baker who drove home the rebound.

A third Grantham goal arrived in the 24th minute when skipper Sam Muggleton launched a long throw into the penalty area where Shodunke rose highest to head home.

Sherwood looked for a way back into the contest and Ethan Wiesztort flashed a first-time shot just wide of the far post but Grantham carried the greater threat as the opening half drew to a close.

They put the contest beyond their Northern Premier League East Division visitors five minutes into the second half as Shodunke played in Harris who rifled his finish into the roof of the Sherwood net.

Colliery substitute Louis Pennington fired wide when well placed after the Gingerbreads had lost possession at the back before the visitors were reduced to 10 men.

Goalkeeper Pierrepont was red-carded for his challenge on Shodunke as the Grantham forward raced clear following a quickly-taken free-kick.

Wiesztort went close to grabbing a consolation for the visitors but his close range effort was brilliantly blocked by Grantham goalkeeper Curtis Hall.

The Gingerbreads will now travel to United Counties League Premier Division South side Yaxley in the next round on Saturday, August 17.