Petersfield Town 7 Portsmouth Water Company 2: PETERSFIELD Town breezed into the next round of the Portsmouth Senior Cup but only after they were given an early scare by their Portsmouth Saturday League visitors.

They will now face Locks Heath at the quarter finals stage of the competition after last Tuesday night’s victory at Love Lane.

The Rams were behind almost as soon as they kicked-off after conceding a horror goal. A back pass bounced over keeper Tom Best’s foot and James Johnson beat him to the loose ball before turning it over the goal line.

Petersfield had to wait until the 18th minute before they put their supporters’ nerves at rest when Olly Sturt flicked home a header from close range.

The home side got their noses in front on 38 minutes when Sturt got to a loose ball and took it into the penalty area before dispatching his low shot past keeper Jamie Farrell.

It was 3-1 three minutes later when good build up play on the right saw Matt Corsaro receive a pass inside the box and he slammed his shot home from 15 yards out.

The visitors got home nerves jangling again two minutes before half time when they scored another goal. Liam Horsted’s free kick from the edge of the box took a big deflection as it went through the defensive wall and the wrong footed Best could only watch the ball roll past him and into the net.

However, any hopes the visitors had of causing a major upset fizzled out quickly at the start of the second half. Petersfield made it 4-2 on 48 minutes when the ball flew up into the air as it was worked into the penalty area and Adam Cripps made sure he was underneath it when it dropped to hit his shot into the net.

Two minutes later the Rams got their fifth goal of the night when Preston Tee picked up the ball inside the box and after having his first effort blocked, his persistence saw him get to the loose ball first and he fired it into the net.

Goal number six came on 66 minutes when Cripps received the ball on the edge of the penalty area and he turned and smashed it into the top corner of the net.

The scoring was completed with nine minutes remaining when Cripps curled his free kick from the edge of the box straight into the net to complete his hat-trick.

Petersfield: Best, Searle, Buckland, Cripps, Wycherley (Harvey), Geddes, Tee, Wedlake (Giles), Sturt, Miroy (Barnes), Corsaro. Subs not used: B Neal, Graham.