HOLDERS Bournemouth Poppies marched into the semi-finals of the Wessex League Cup following a resounding 4-0 win over Bemerton Heath Harlequins at Victoria Park on Tuesday.

And boss Ken Vaughan, whose charges beat Winchester City in the final in May, is desperate to see Poppies retain the trophy in memory of late president Ernie Stimpson, who died in October.

Vaughan said: “As far as we are concerned, it is Ernie’s cup and we won’t be letting it go without a fight. We won it for him and will be doing our utmost to retain it in his memory.

“If anybody is going to take it off us, they will have to earn it. I was absolutely delighted with our performance against Bemerton and we were deserved winners.”

Martin Warren opened the scoring for Poppies in the first half and went on to complete his hat-trick after Adam Taylor had made it 2-0 early in the second half.

Meanwhile, New Milton Town, who face Poppies in the Wessex Premier on Saturday, bowed out of the cup following an unjust 1-0 defeat at Romsey Town.

Linnets boss Glenn Burnett, who saw Liam Robinson bag the only goal of the game, joked: “I was going to phone Romsey to apologise for all 22 men playing in one half for 45 minutes! Someone said a fairer result would have been 7-1 to us and that summed it up.”

Poppies: Frampton, Crow, Jackson, Byrne, Crutcher, Taylor (Carlile, 56), Pinder, Rowley, Ewen, Warren, Saadi. Unused subs: Mas, Ingram, J Blake, Vaughan (g/k).

Linnets: Rowe, Davies, Donaldson (Chester, 35), Stuart, Curtis, Case, Gilkes, Tanner (Proctor, 80), Baldacchino, Moth, Preston. Unused subs: Holland, Morris, Digby (g/k).