CHERRIES’ development side withstood a first-half flurry from Fleet Spurs to seal a 7-0 victory in the second round of the Hampshire Senior Cup tonight.

Ben Whitfield and Harry Cornick rounded off well-crafted moves in the first half while the visitors stood up manfully to spells of Spurs pressure at Kennels Lane.

The Wessex One outfit kept going but ran out of steam after the break with a double from Harrison Gilkes and goals for Matt Butcher, Aly Coulibaly and Sam Surridge capping a consummate victory.

Cherries, restricted by not being allowed to play loan players in the county competition, still fielded a strong side, including centre-half Baily Cargill who wore the captain’s armband.

Fleet made the early running in a cagey start but Cherries opened the scoring with their first meaningful attack on 16 minutes, centre-back Jake McCarthy’s raking pass finding Whitfield to calmly slot past advancing goalkeeper Mark Appleby.

Undeterred, Fleet kept plugging away and created a number of presentable openings during a purple patch midway through the first half with rapid frontrunner Jamil Olweny causing Cherries plenty of problems down the right.

But no sooner had Spurs threatened to find a way back, Cherries set about another incisive attack which ended with Cornick’s smart turn and left-footed drive nestling in the bottom far corner of Appleby’s net.

Fleet continued to create with player-boss Sam Knowles skewing an effort off target while Olweny couldn’t quite reach a Jordan Gibbs centre at the far post.

But as the final throes of the first half approached, the hosts started to tire and Cherries might have added to their advantage through Joe Quigley, while Cornick spurned two golden chances before the whistle.

As the second half wore on, Cherries looked increasingly likely to pick off their opponents and so it proved with Gilkes applying a neat low finish after Cornick’s effort had been blocked 10 minutes after the restart.

Substitute and youth-teamer Butcher netted number five within a minute of coming on, his looping shot coming after the ball had bounced round the box from a short corner.

In the final 10 minutes, Cherries ran riot with Coulibaly netting on the rebound from Quigley’s shot. Gilkes then grabbed his second and the goal of the night with a fine solo run to beat two men and dink over Appleby from an acute angle.

Another substitute, Sam Surridge, tucked away number seven in the dying embers to round off a clinical display by Stephen Purches’s young charges.

Cherries: Holmes, Muleba, Harfield, McCarthy, Cargill (Kaye, 70), A Coulibaly, Cornick (Butcher, 68), Carmichael, Quigley (Surridge, 81), Whitfield, Gilkes. Unused subs: Neale, O’Flaherty (g/k).