Daisy Hill cruised into the quarter-finals of the Bolton Hospital Cup with a convincing 6-0 first-round win against Little Lever SC at home on Monday night.
A hat-trick from Fin Stafford, a double from Luke Nicholls and a late strike from Kaiden Barlow saw Daisy through to an eventually comfortable win, but a hard-working Little Lever side caused them problems in the opening stages of the game, a point that was not lost on home captain Jake O’Brien afterwards.
“We were riding the storm a bit early on, and they had a good chance in the opening minutes,” said O’Brien.
“It took us about 25 minutes to get going, it was like the AFC Blackpool game in the league on Saturday, but when we did get going, we looked good and created plenty of chances,
“You have to take the positives out of the game. At the end of the day we scored six goals, so you have to be happy with that. These games can be tricky and we showed in the second half why we are higher than they are in the football pyramid.
“I was part of the Daisy Hill team three years ago that reached the Hospital Cup final when we lost, and this is a competition I want to win, it’s a big one on my list.
“We are already in the final of the Atherton Charity Cup, so if we can do well in the Hospital Cup and also finish as high in the league as we can, that would be a successful season for us.
“We are still unbeaten in March, and now we can look to finish the month on a high against Euxton Villa on Saturday, and we are going into the game with a lot of confidence after our recent results.”
The opening game in this season’s Hospital Cup competition almost got off to an explosive start when Little Lever created the first clear chance in the third minute, with forward Martez Bowman glancing a header just wide after the Daisy back line had been caught on the counter attack.
The Little Lever striker was also on the end of the next chance that arose, but was denied by a good save from Daisy keeper Morgan Newns.
At the midway point of the first half, Little Lever goalkeeper Aaran Spencer was called into action for the first time, when he finger-tipped a Liam Sheppard header over the bar, but he was beaten on 32 minutes when Daisy made the breakthrough with the opening goal.
A long clearance from Newns was flicked on by Sheppard into the path of Stafford, who strode through to place a shot through the keeper’s legs.
There minutes later Stafford bagged his second of the night, with a close-range finish after good work from Mussab Benaly had set up the chance, and he came close to notching a first-half hat-trick five minutes before the break when he fired in a shot that beat the keeper but was cleared off the line.
However, 10 minutes into the second half, Daisy were awarded a penalty when Sheppard was tripped by Little Lever keeper Spence as he raced into the box, and Stafford converted the penalty to claim his treble.
As the game progressed, the pace of Sheppard was an increasing problem for the visiting defence, and on 68 minutes he set up the fourth goal of the night, racing down the left before squaring to Nicholls who slotted home from 15 yards.
Seven minutes from time, Nicholls was denied by a good save from Spencer when his shot after a solo run was dealt with by the keeper, but two minutes from time he did get his second goal with a simple finish from close range after a terrific run from full-back Kyle Whittaker had set up the chance.
Deep into stoppage time, Barlow rounded off a good night for Daisy with a sixth goal, when he picked up a pass from Charlie Roberts, cut inside the defender, and fired in a shot that took a deflection on its way into the net.
Daisy will now face an away game in the quarter-finals of the Hospital Cup against the winners of the tie between Atherton Town and Old Boltonians, which is being played next Thursday.
