Home comfort for Blues after 4-1 Trophy win

Gainsborough Trinity booked their place in round one of the FA Trophy against Harrogate Town, following a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Hinckley United at the Greene King Stadium on Tuesday.

And the Blues will have home comfort in the next round, with Harrogate due to travel to the Northolme on 24th November.

A 1-1 draw with Hinckley on Saturday forced a midweek replay, and Steve Housham’s men started brilliantly.

The visitors took the lead after just four minutes courtesy of Dominic Knowles’ penalty, following Theo Brown’s clumsy challenge on Jamie Yates.

Gainsborough then doubled their lead midway through the first-half thanks to Darryn Stamp’s powerful downward header from Yates’ deep cross, which United keeper Robert Peet could only palm into the bottom corner. The hosts improved and reduced the arrears in the 43rd minute via a superbly crafted move that was both started and finished by striker Aron Wint, before Max Harrop stung the palms of Jan Budtz with a fizzing 30-yard free-kick.

Knowles flashed an effort wide immediately after the restart, but skipper Michael Leary made it 3-1 to Gainsborough six minutes into the second-half after shifting the ball onto his left foot and sending a sumptuous lob over the stranded Peet.

The hosts’ frustrations were beginning to show and United striker Matthew Marshall was shown his marching orders following an off-the-ball altercation with Danny Hone in the 56th minute, before Peet thwarted Knowles’ cheeky lob.

Second-half substitute Paul Connor etched his name onto the scoresheet six minutes from time, heading into an empty net after Knowles had thumped the crossbar.

“It was a workman like performance. We had to grind it out and in the end it looked looks comfortable,” said Trinity boss Housham.

“We put our chances away tonight and put a few things right. They had nothing to lose and they’ve got a very good young side but we coped with it a bit better than on Saturday.”

“We’ve got another home draw against Harrogate, who are doing well in the cup competitions. We’ll give it our best shot and we want to progress.” On Saturday Trinity return to league action, at Bishop Stortford.

Hinckley: Peet, Towers, Brown (Coleman 70), Headley, Raglan (c), Richards-Everton, Lane, Harrop, Wint, Marshall, Cole (Holt 79). Not used: Hicks, Sutheran, Stenson. Goals: Wint (43). Red: Marshall (56).

Trinity: Budtz, Roma, Wilde, Waterfall (Young 88), Hone, Leary (c), D’Laryea, Nelthorpe (Hawkridge 65), Knowles, Stamp (Connor 74), Yates. Not used: Williams, Batty. Goals: Knowles (pen 4), Stamp (25), Leary (51), Connor (84). Yellow: Hawkridge (77).

Attendance: 181.