Christchurch 0 Petersfield Town 6: PETERSFIELD Town cruised into the quarter finals of the Russell Cotes Cup with a comfortable victory at Christchurch on Wednesday evening.

All of the goals for the Rams came in the second half when their Southern League qualities proved to be too strong for their Wessex Division 1 hosts to hold out against.

The first half had been a lot more even, with few clear cut chances for either side. Petersfield looked the slightly better team but if Christchurch had been able to get their noses in front they could have been tough opposition to break down.

Petersfield went close to taking the lead on 11 minutes when the ball was played up into the box and after a couple of shots had been half blocked by the home defence Oliver Bailey fired a shot towards goal.

Unfortunately, Ram skipper Jamie Ford was standing in the only place where he could stop the goal-bound effort and his body blocked the shot.

Bailey had another chance when he shot low towards goal but his effort went just wide of the target.

The home side also created some openings of their own, with Mark Smith’s shot from the edge of the penalty area going straight to keeper Anthony Ender and Pepe Smith doing the same thing later in the half.

It looked like the match would be a close affair until Petersfield started their second half scoring spree on 50 minutes.

The ball was worked forward from midfielder up to David Jerrard on the edge of the box and he turned and hit a low shot past keeper Andy Knights.

Three minutes later the Rams doubled their lead when a cross from the right found two players unmarked in front of goal and Andy Todd tapped home from close range.

Petersfield’s third goal came on the hour mark when Joe Briggs worked some space on the right for the ball to be played into the penalty area and Bailey latched on to the inswinging cross, nudged it past the keeper and then rolled his shot into the empty net.

The fourth goal came on 65 minutes when Todd’s cross from the left struck a defender’s arm and Jerrard’s penalty had just enough pace on it to go through Knights’ dive after the keeper guessed the right way the spot kick was going.

Pepe Smith went close to scoring for the home side but Ender got down well to push his low shot aside and then Bailey should have done better after being put clear of the home defence but he put his shot straight into the keeper’s hands.

Petersfield went 5-0 up after 82 minutes when a ball played forward from deep on the left found Bailey, who took it past the keeper and he rolled his shot into the net.

Four minutes later the Rams rounded off the scoring for the night when Todd raced on to a ball through the middle and he picked his spot to fire his shot into the net.

Petersfield: Ender, Searle (Geddes), Norgate (Buckland), Green, Hyde, Ford, Richardson, Jerrard, Bailey, Briggs (Neal), Todd. Subs not used: Needham, Eaton.