Six-y FA Cup win is ‘best performance of season so far’ from Holbeach United

Holbeach United 6
Northampton ON Chenecks 1

Seb Hayes saluted Holbeach United’s best performance of the season so far as they cruised past ChromaSport UCL Premier Division rivals ON Chenecks 6-1 in the Emirates FA Cup on Saturday.

First-half strikes from Mitch Griffiths (2) and Lewis Leckie (pen 39 and 43) put the Tigers in command at Carter’s Park, before a Spencer Tinkler stunner (65) ended the game as a contest.

Calvin Budd pulled one back for the visitors with a deflected free-kick five minutes from time, but sub Jordan Keeble (86) and striker Will Bird (87) hit back with well-taken goals to ensure Holbeach won handsomely.

The victory earns the Tigers £1,925 in prize money and place in the First Qualifying Round – with manager Hayes eyeing a home draw against a big fish.

“It was a better performance than last week,” said the Tigers boss. “We did have a sloppy 20 minutes or so in the second half, but we knew they were going to have a spell.

“But we were very solid, Ricky (Drury) didn’t really have to make a save. We took our foot off it a bit and they did score, but the pleasing thing was that we went back up the other end and scored two very quickly.

“I’m very happy with that.

“Overall, I can’t really complain at all – that was our best performance of the season and we were ruthless, too. We pretty much hit the target with every chance we had.

“Considering we had three players missing as well, it’s a very good day. The most pleasing thing is that three young lads all came off the bench and did well.

“Jordan, who has come through the Reserves, took his goal brilliantly, by the way, with what was his second or third touch.

“If we can now get a home draw against the highest-ranked team in the next round, we’ll take that.

“Getting a big gate is the name of the game, but of course we’d take a home draw against anyone.

“Spalding or Wisbech? Why not!

“But we’re just happy with two FA Cup wins and five matches unbeaten this season.

“We’re not conceding many goals and have got to the round of the FA Cup that we wanted to, making some money along the way.”

Seven days after beating Chenecks 3-0 in the league, Holbeach wasted little time in seizing command of the FA Cup clash.

Good play by Leckie released Bird on the left – and he squared superbly for the grateful Griffiths to fire home at the back post inside two minutes.

Link-ups between Leckie, Bird and Griffiths were regular occurances in the first period, with Griffiths seeing a shot saved following a Bird knockdown and Leckie nodding over at the near post after a Griffiths cross.

Leckie then forced a super save from the Chenecks keeper after half-volleying a fierce drive towards the roof of the net following another great Griffiths pass.

At the other end, Ricky Drury was finally called into action when clawing a deflected Ben Diamond effort away from his top corner.

But the respite was brief for Chenecks, who soon found themselves 2-0 down when Leckie was tripped in the box. The striker picked himself up and lashed the penalty down the middle six minutes before the break.

Not done there, the free-scoring strike netted his sixth goal in five games with a tap-in three minutes later. It came after an almighty scramble in the box which saw an almost comical amount of miskicks from Holbeach players before the ball was finally converted.

Chenecks started the second half well and Jacob Ollivier worked Drury with a decent hit, but it was the Tigers who scored next.

Good play from George Zuerner teed-up Tinkler, who crashed a fierce effort into the corner for the pick of Holbeach’s six goals.

The game looked to be petering out before Budd’s free-kick took a slight deflection off the unlucky Stacy Cartwright and beat the despairing dive of Drury to give the visitors a consolation.

However, young gun Keeble – keen to impress from the bench – went up the other end a tucked home a fabulous finish to give the Tigers a fifth goal.

Bird then raced clear seconds later to round the keeper and notch his fifth goal in as many matches.

Tougher tests lie ahead of the Tigers, but they once again showed they’ll be a force to be reckoned with this season.

Tigers: Drury, Harker (Keeble 83), Jackson, Braithwaite, Cartwright, Warfield, Griffiths, Tinkler (Dougill 77), Leckie, Bird, Zuerner (Davies 73).

Attendance: 98.

MOTM: Leckie.