Report By Matty Hurst
Scintillating Southport FC put four past South Shields in a dominant display to progress into the third round of the Isuzu FA Trophy.
The first half started with a flurry of chances for both sides, the most noticeable being when Mongoy rounded Renshaw but lost his footing and fell over before being able to shoot with the ball rolling out of the play.
Shortly after, Port went up the other end when O’Neill drove past three or four players and laid off Bainbridge who scuffed his effort straight at Boney who saved the shot.
Southport maintained pressure on the visitors backline and found the opening when a smart one-two saw Watson with space in the box to feed the ball across to O’Neill who made no mistake in making it 1-0 in the 34th minute.
The home side doubled their lead just 5 minutes later when Morgan lofted a wide free-kick on to the head of Anson who rose like a salmon to loop a header over the keeper.
The first half finished 2-0 with, despite their best efforts, Southport limiting the away side to few chances and capitalising on their own.
Southport FC made it three just minutes into the 2nd half when O’Neill zig-zagged through the heart of Shields defence before laying off Watson who cut back and placed his shot into the top right corner.
Southport FC players pay tribute to former Life President Sam Shrouder
Shields looked to bring one back and make a game of it but each time Southport held them off and countered which then resulted in a fourth goal which came from a penalty won by Hmami, who weaved through the defence and was brought down. Evans then stepped up for the second time in 7 days against Boney and just as he did in the league converted once again.
As the game drew to a close it was nice to see youngster Kilcullen make his debut from the Academy and play some well earned minutes.
The game finished 4-0 and now the wait is until Monday to find out who our next opponents in the 3rd round will be. The next league game is Tuesday away to Scunthorpe which kicks off at 7.45
Line-ups:
Southport: Renshaw, Thomson, Anson (c) (Flowers 75′), Evans, Doyle, Morgan (Heath 45′), Bainbridge, Hmami, Watson, O’Neill (Kilcullen 88′), Bennett
Unused subs: McMillan, Quansah,
South Shields: Boney, Lufudu, Liddle, Broadbent, Adams (c), Abbey, Briggs, Clarke, Mongoy (Telfor 60′), Blackett (Woods 60′), James (Martin 60′)
Unused subs: Smith, Heaney, McGeorge, Seymour
Attendance: 761 (67 away)
The Man Of The Match chosen by The Family Of Sam Shrouder was Niall Watson and he received the Adam Le Roi Trophy with the award sponsored by Southport Brewery.
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