Andover 5

Sylvans Sports 0

CFL sponsored Andover last season won the Hants Senior Cup in one of the last competitive games to be played at The Dell and manager Ken Cunningham Brown and his young Lions would like nothing more than to win the trophy again this season in the first final to be played at Saints' new Friends Provident St Mary Stadium.

Last season they reached the final on the back of the slick finishing skills of Andy Forbes and the prolific hitman continued his golden vein of form last Saturday with his second hat-trick of the season as the town side cruised into the quarter-finals of this season's competition in a one-sided demolition of Sylvans Sports from Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

Forbes' latest treble took him within shooting distance of becoming Andover's second highest scorer in the club's history with him needing just one more goal to match Fred Lillywhite's tally of 173.

Lillywhite reigned supreme during a 13-year stay at Andover between the two Great Wards while Forbes, a 21-year-old former Reading apprentice, has broken league and club scoring records alike in just over three seasons. He still has some way to go however to overhaul the No 1 with Tommy Muckles notching 238 goals between 1946-58.

Forbes however was in oustanding form against the Channel Islanders as he took this season's total to an impressive 24 from 21 starts and fellow striker Vince Rusher - seventh on Andover's all-time hit list - was also back on song as he weighed in with his first goals in five games with a sparkling brace as the Lions outclassed the visitors.

A tough and often physical Sports side kept going right to the end but never posed any kind of threat. They never got to grips with Andover's pace on the flanks and the Lions might have won by a bigger margin had they not toyed with the opposition in a one-sided second half.

Shaun Dyke, well supported by Matt Bicknell, ran them ragged and four of the goals came from attacks on the left flank. Spencer Walsh and Lloyd Webber ran the midfield, Andover's back line had too much know-how for the Sports strikers and 'keeper Adam Gage, who continued in place of the injured Keiron Drake, hardly had a shot to save as well as having a hand in the last goal.

It took the Lions just 15 minutes to assert their authority with Forbes giving the lead with a clinical finish. The Lions were in total command after that and gained a two-goal cushion before the break with Forbes turning provider to send Rusher racing clear for their second goal on the half hour. He took the ball into the area and around the advancing 'keeper before slotting left-footed low into the far corner from the tightest of angles.

Andover lost defender Glen Damon for a spell after a knock on the ankle but he soon returned and Andover finished the half with a spate of free kicks as Sports tried to halt the flowing attacks by fair means or foul.

Lions delivered two more goalsin as many minutes to kill the game off as a contest.

Andover's third came two minutes after the restart and was perhaps the pick of the bunch, with the strong-running Dyke scything his way through on the left before clipping the ball wide for the over-lapping Bicknell to deliver a low cross into the six-yard box where Forbes side-footed home past a stranded 'keeper.

Two minutes later Rusher was on the goal trail again with Andover's fourth after Dyke carved opened the Sports defence for the umpteenth time and from his accurate pull-back Rusher's shot proved too strong for the combined efforts of 'keeper and defender on the line, although it needed a signal from the referee's assistant to say that it had crossed the line.

Sports had enough of the ball in the second half but never had the time to do anything with it as they were quickly closed down by one, two and sometimes three home players and the Lions' fifth goal just about summed up the difference.

Gage played his part with a huge clearance kick that a Sports defender thought would run through to his own 'keeper. He ducked under the ball but had not reckoned on Forbes' eye for an opening as he was onto it like an Exorcet missile and went round the stranded 'keeper, stopping it on the goal-line before rolling it into the empty net.

KCB was especially pleased with his side's movement and passing. "I thought we played really well,"he said. "They were a big and strong side, sometimes we make other sides look a lot worse than they are but we never let them get on top and I was especially pleased at the way we closed them down. They couldn't believe that we played in the same league as Hamble, who they beat in the last round, and some of the goals were as good as anything you're likely to see on TV."

Andover (4-4-2): Gage; Kennedy, Barker, Damen, Bicknell; Asker, Webber, Walsh, Dyke; Rusher, Forbes. Subs: Crossley, Drake (not used).