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Photos: TK Rohit
James 1sts became the first team to book their place in the College Cup Quarter-Finals as they eased to a 6-0 victory over Goodricke 3rds.
Tom Clarke added two more goals to his already impressive tally and Oscar Lynch and James Offord too found the back of the net, whilst James Davies notched a second half brace to give James six of the best.
James were dangerous from the off, Clarke signalling his intent early on when he forced Goodricke ‘keeper Noel Rogers to palm away a powerful half-volley from outside the area.
Rogers was left helpless at the hands of the same player minutes later, however. James Offord flicked the ball on to Clarke down the left hand side and the James striker rifled a shot home to make it 1-0.
James added a second through Oscar Lynch when the big centre-back latched onto a James Davies corner with his head, and it was 3-0 not long after, Offord curling a shot from the left-edge of the D past the reach of Rogers and into the bottom right.
Davies was unlucky not to add a fourth as he expertly gave himself space to shoot before smashing a superb strike against the inside of the post before that man Clarke did add the fourth goal of the half courtesy of a beautifully curved free-kick.
Follwing a Goodricke handball, Clarke bent his strike round the wall and past Rogers into the top left in typical fashion.
Goodricke improved considerably in the second period and were able to give James more of a game in midfield. However, the men in green were lacking in options up front and the James defence were able to deal comfortably with any potential threat.
Davies came close a couple of times early in the half before adding James’ fifth goal. Richard Baxter chipped the ball over the Goodricke defence and Davies rushed onto it, flicking his header past Rogers for his first goal of the game.
His second, and James’ sixth, also came from his head, as he connected with an Oscar Lynch cross after a surging run from the centre-back to round off the scoring and send James through to the knockout stages.
“We’ve had four wins from four, the start we wanted,” said James captain Richard Baxter after the whistle. “We were back to our best today, hopefully we’ll keep winning games to keep it going.”