Grantham Town Under 16s beat Kidderminster Harriers White in the JPL Cup
After reaching the Lincolnshire County Cup semi-finals last week, Grantham Town Under 16s saw off Kidderminster Harriers White with a 4-1 victory in the JPL Cup at the Meres 3G on Saturday.
Grantham, however, didn't have everything their own way and it was Harriers who threatened first straight from the kick off.
A long ball into the Town left back position won a corner for the visitors and the subsequent cross saw a header crash off the underside of the bar and cleared away to safety.
It was an early wake up call for Grantham who needed to quickly compose themselves.
That they did and after four minutes forced a corner of their own. The ball was swung in from the left and dropped right in front of the Kidderminster goalmouth.
A melee followed with Will Harris eventually prodding home the ball from close range to give Grantham an early lead.
On the 15 minute mark, Town doubled their lead.
Charlie Loureiro-Brooks played a delightful ball over the defence into the path of Rhys Stevens, who rifled a first time shot into the bottom corner of the net.
Harriers themselves also looked dangerous, particularly down the flanks, with some very skilful individuals causing problems to the Gingerbreads backline.
However, the defence stood firm and generally kept the visitors at arms length by restricting them to several long shots that failed to trouble keeper Harri Bexon.
It was in fact Grantham, kicking with the aid of the wind in the first half, who scored a third goal five minutes before the interval.
A throw-in from the right edge of the box found Stevens just inside the area and he bundled his way past the defender to drive in his second of the game.
Harriers came out for the second half looking to get back into the game and immediately applied the pressure.
It didn’t take long for them to find a breakthrough as a failure to win the ball in midfield saw the Town defence back-pedalling.
The ball was played across the edge of the box for a cleanly struck right foot shot into the net to make it 3-1.
The goal sparked an element of concern for Grantham, as Harriers followed up with a curling effort from an angle, but the ball flew comfortably over the bar.
With an hour played, Town's Aston Taylor hooked the ball over the top for Stevens to race through on goal.
As the keeper rushed out to the edge of the box, the Gingerbreads' number nine prodded the ball towards goal but he could only watch on as it rolled agonisingly wide of the far post.
However, in almost identical circumstances, Taylor helped on Loureiro-Brooks through ball to see Stevens again stab it under the on-rushing keeper.
This time the ball rolled towards the goal and over the line to claim his hat-trick and Grantham's fourth.
There was still time for Kidderminster to crash another shot off the bar from distance and, as the ball bounced out to the head of the on coming forward with keeper Bexon on the floor, somehow the Gingerbread stopper got to his feet to spread and divert it up over the crossbar with his leg.
Grantham saw out the victory and now progress to a last 16 tie against Chesterfield.