Bury Town 4 Felixstowe & Walton United 1
Clinical Bury Town eased into the quarter-finals of the Turners Hyundai Suffolk Premier Cup, helped by two early goals against Felixstowe & Walton United in an entertaining encounter at Ram Meadow tonight.
Goals from Ryan Stafford and Cemal Ramadan put Bury 2-0 up, inside the first quarter-of-an-hour, and Emmanuel Machaya killed off the tie by adding a third in the 54th minute.
Stafford notched his second, and the Blues' fourth, before substitute Adam Hanson netted a 77th minute consolation for The Seasiders.
Bury enjoyed the perfect start, putting the disappointment of Saturday's 2-1 home league defeat to Tilbury behind them by taking the lead inside three minutes.
Right-back Stafford rifled home the opener with a clinical finish, the ball fizzing in at the near post.
The Seasiders responded positively, but without ever really troubling home keeper George Bugg. Liam Ingram had a shot charged down in the 10th minute, while Callum Bennett drilled a 20-yarder wide of the near post and Bugg then saved at the feet of Ingram, all in quick succession.
However, Bury were far more clinical in front of goal, as proved by Ramadan's smart finish to double the lead in the 14th minute. A quickfire break caught out The Seasiders' defence and Ramadan smashed home in some style.
Skipper Ramadan came close to notching Bury's third, in the 33rd minute, with an opportunist lob from the left edge of the box that flew only a foot over the top.
Machaya peppered the target with a couple of efforts from close-in, on 35 minutes, but it was the young front-runner who finally added the killer third, nine minutes into the second half.
Another sweeping Bury move ended with Ramadan delivering a low cross for the onrushing Machaya to steer home.
The hosts were by now in complete control and Machaya was denied a second goal by a goal-line clearance, before Stafford struck home a measured low shot from 20 yards out to make it 4-0 on 75 minutes. Hanson replied two minutes later for the visitors.
Squads
BURY TOWN: Bugg, Stafford, Gardner, Hood, White, Maughn (sub Robson, 70), Chambers-Shaw, Horne, Machaya, Ramadan (sub Hughes, 60), Nyadzayo. Unused subs: Cook, Crane, Jolland.
FELIXSTOWE & WALTON: Crump, Bennett, Ainsley, Wiggins, Kerridge, Davis, Newman, Matthews (sub Hanson, 46), Ingram (sub Debenham, 64), Powell, Schaar (sub Barley, 56). Unused subs: Ribchester, Spurling.
Attendance: 209
Meanwhile, HADLEIGH UNITED won a dramatic penalty shoot-out to knock AFC SUDBURY out of the Suffolk Premier Cup, following a 2-2 draw at King's Marsh.
Reece Dobson scored in the 14th minute and Hadleigh went in 1-0 up at half-time, before Lewis O'Malley equalised by stabbing home from Reece Harris' free-kick, which had been nodded down by Adam Bailey-Dennis in the 54th minute.
An in-form Tom Maycock kept up his good scoring record by putting AFC Sudbury 2-1 up in the 71st minute. He ran onto a through ball and rounded keeper Nick Punter to score.
However, Hadleigh forced a penalty shoot-out when Joel Glover drilled home a low 20-yarder in the 85th minute.
Tom Dettmar had his penalty saved from the first spot kick, and although his team-mates Harris, Maycock, Ben Hunter and Callum Harrison all scored, so too did Hadleigh's quartet of Dobson, Kyle Cassell, Ben Elliott and Kye Ruel.
That made it 4-4, with just Glover to take his penalty, but that was saved and so it went into sudden-death.
Joe Whight had his penalty saved, only for Hadleigh's Kyron Andrews to miss with his spot kick, but Ben Hammett also failed to score, which gave Matt Paine the chance to bury his penalty and so wrap up a 5-4 win on penalties for the Brettsiders.
Elsewhere, BRANTHAM ATHLETIC celebrated a fine 2-0 win away at MILDENHALL TOWN, thanks to goals by Sean Gunn and Patrick Brothers. The Blue Imps scored early in each half.
There was also a surprise result at WHITTON UNITED, where the hosts suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of lowly WALSHAM-LE-WILLOWS. Liam Wales was Whitton's sole goalscorer on 65 minutes.
NEEDHAM MARKET won 4-1 at HAVERHILL ROVERS. Luke Ingram gave them a 1-0 lead at half-time, before Joe Marsden, Gareth Heath and Jake Dye added second-half goals.
LOWESTOFT TOWN won 3-1 at KIRKLEY & PAKEFIELD with all the goals coming in the last quarter of the game. Louis McIntosh put Lowestoft 1-0 up, and although Cameron Russell equalised with a penalty, Jake Reed scored two late goals for the visitors.
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