Saturday, October 20, 2001

BROMSGROVE Rovers eased into round two of the FA Vase with an impressive 4-0 triumph at Midland Alliance rivals Cradley Town.

Leading scorer Sam Bowen got the Greens off to the perfect start after ten minutes with a cool finish through a sea of players into the bottom right hand corner of Paul Smith's goal.

Craig Seweki should have pulled Town back into the match moments later but his header was embarrassingly wide of the target. Chris Papworth mirrored his teammates dismal finishing after 27 minutes when he blazed the ball over the crossbar from five yards out.

Cradley were punished for these missed chances on 34 minutes when Bromsgrove central defender Jon Ford rose unchallenged in the penalty area and sent a looping header over Smith off Richard Kavanagh's free kick.

It was all one-way traffic in the second half as rampant Rovers poured forward in search of more goals. They were rewarded for their efforts after 67 minutes when Frazer McHugh un-leashed a right foot thunderbolt inside Cradley's area which screamed past Smith.

The win was completed on 79 minutes when substitute Liam O'Neil pounced on a loose ball in a goalmouth scramble to score his first goal in Bromsgrove colours.