A young Town XI recovered from going a goal down early on to thrash Cornard United 6-1 at Blackhouse Lane in the second round of the Suffolk Premier Cup on Wednesday evening.
Coaches David Wright and Matt Pooley named trialist Archie Quinlan in the Town starting XI, the youngster from the Kinetic Academy featuring in a right-sided centre-back role. Quinlan has been playing in the Kinetic AFC Whyteleafe Youth side this season.
The non-league side made a dream start and opened the scoring after just five minutes. Town keeper Alan Fleischer had just made a fine point-blank save to keep a back-post header out following a corner, but Harry Shawyer then fired the ball low into the net from the edge of the box.
Just a minute later and it should have been two. Fleischer hesitated over coming to meet a long ball over the Town backline but the keeper made amends by blocking Louie Arnold's effort with his feet.
Out of nowhere, the Blues grabbed a rather fortuitous equaliser in the tenth minute when striker Jamie Mauge (pictured) charged down a clearance from home keeper Ryan Lees, and the ball richocheted into the unguarded net.
In what was a frantic start by both sides in the driving rain, Mauge couldn't quite stretch far enough to convert a deep cross from the right before Charlie Compton cleared a Tyler Kemp header off the line at the other end.
Cornard kept pressing to regain their lead and Fleischer did well to keep a diving header from Josh Hughes out, with Ryan Culleton then lifting the ball inches wide of the far post soon after, with the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division side looking particularly dangerous from set-pieces.
However on 23 Town edged ahead. A quick free-kick out wide caught the home defence napping and Kemp brought down Ollie Davis as the attacker burst into the box. Ref Abi Byrne had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Rio Morgan stepped up to confidently convert the penalty into the top left corner of the net, which gave Lees no chance.
Within a minute of the restart the ball was played to Stevie Brouwers in the box and his low cross-shot was tapped in at the back post by Mauge, but the effort was ruled out for offside.
Town seemed to settle as the half wore on and they controlled much more of the game, with Luke Towler firing over shortly before the break and Lees then producing a fine diving save to push a left-footed strike from Jesse Nwabueze wide of the target.
A few minutes after the restart, Lees tipped Nwabueze's free-kick onto the bar and Compton somehow turned the rebound onto the post from close range, before Fleischer got down well to push Josh McFaull's set-piece away from the bottom corner.
On 55 Town scored their third when a long-range effort from 40 yards out was diverted onto his bar by a back-tracking Lees, only for Nwabueze to react first and tap the ball into the net.
Fleischer comfortably gathered a low drive from home sub Charlie Lindoe on the hour, moments before Nwabueze's low cross from the right was struck onto the post again, this time by skipper Towler.
On 64 the impressive Nwabueze outmuscled McFaull on the right and his low ball across the box was stroked home by Towler for Town's fourth.
Four minutes later, it was five when sub Leon Elliott's long ball over the Cornard defence found Compton, who took a touch before firing low across Lees and into the far bottom corner. The officials were evidently unimpressed with the home side's appeals for an offside flag, with skipper Lewis Soraf picking up a yellow card for dissent.
With just under ten minutes remaining, Mauge ran onto another ball over the top and held off a defender before finding the net for his second and Town's sixth of the night.
Nwabueze certainly caught the eye with a good attacking display out wide on the right, while Mauge took his chances well. First-year scholars Compton and Brouwers also did well against a physical side, who seemed to tire in the second-half.
Town XI: Fleischer, Brouwers, O'Sullivan (Chenery 46), Quinlan (Elliott 64), Curtis, Towler, Nwabueze, Compton, Mauge, Morgan (Longwe 46), Davis. Unused: Fletcher, Eze. Att: 74.