HARRY Cornick’s quick-fire double turned a tricky tie on its head as Cherries trumped Horndean 3-1 in the Hampshire Senior Cup.

Captain Cornick bagged two goals in as many minutes and laid on substitute Josh O’Hanlon’s late third to book his side a semi-final spot alongside Conference South duo Gosport Borough and Farnborough and Southern League Sholing.

Gary Austin opened the scoring for Horndean with an opportunist effort after 25 minutes as Cherries laboured on a heavy and poor playing surface during the first half.

But the visitors set a brisk tempo after the interval and swept aside their Sydenhams Wessex League opponents with Cornick at the hub of a bright second-half display.

Coach Stephen Purches fielded Miles Addison and Mohamed Coulibaly in a strong line-up comprising six development squad players and three youth-teamers.

Cherries had an early scare when Harry Potter weaved his magic and set up Austin to fire a low shot at Jordan Holmes who then had to smother Potter’s follow up.

Chances were few and far between but as the match gradually became stretched, Austin pounced on a Holmes error to open the scoring.

Potter’s pass found Austin who rode the challenge of Josh Kaye and took a touch round the deserted Holmes to find the empty net from 20-plus yards.

Coulibaly continually ran at the home defence and opened up the hosts with a slide-rule pass which fizzed across the face of the box for Mason Walsh to fire narrowly wide on 31 minutes.

Seconds later, left-back Ollie Harfield hit the crossbar for Cherries but the direct hosts continued to cause problems and Holmes was forced to desperately scramble away when Potter got the first touch on a threaded pass.

Horndean’s Nathan Paxton was alive to a quick free kick and sent a curling effort agonisingly past Holmes’s far upright just before the break.

But Cherries started the second half well with Cornick instigating the forceful fightback.

Full-back Jordan Lee found Coulibaly who shrugged off having his shirt grabbed to cut back for Cornick to hit a low swinging shot through a host of bodies which swirled beyond the reach of Hordean keeper Brad Hansler.

And an incisive move within 60 seconds fired Cherries in front as Sam Matthews played through to Cornick to finished despite Hansler getting a touch to take the sting out of his effort.

Cornick might have completed a five-minute hat-trick but blazed over after latching on to another Matthews pass.

The Cherries onslaught continued with Ben Whitfield twice going close from presentable openings but Robbie Pittman’s first-time hit from an Addison clearance briefly worried Holmes at the other end.

Walsh spurned a good chance when he struggled to control Cornick’s fierce cross from the right but the third was not far away as Cornick’s bending ball from the right channel found O’Hanlon to coolly stroke home nine minutes from time.

Whitfield, Walsh and O’Hanlon forced decent stops from Hansler during the latter stages as Cherries comfortably cruised to victory.

Cherries: Holmes, Lee, Harfield (Muleba, 70), Addison, Kaye, Butcher, Matthews, Whitfield (A Coulibaly, 87), Cornick, M Coulibaly (O’Hanlon, 70), Walsh. Unused subs: Simpson, O’Flaherty (g/k).