MALVERN Town romped to a 5-1 victory against Loughborough Students in the FA Trophy as the club secured their first-ever win in the competition.
The Hillsiders blitzed their opponents with four first-half goals as Piers Walton, Ben Baxter, Joe Tumelty and Ryan Brunt all found the net at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium.
And Joe Bullock completed the scoring just before the hour mark to put Malvern in the hat for second round qualifying with the draw to take place on Monday, September 8 at 12.30pm.
Malvern made the perfect start as Walton held off a Loughborough defender before finishing underneath the goalkeeper after just three minutes.
And the Hillsiders struck again just six minutes later as Baxter curled a shot into the bottom right corner from the edge of the penalty area to score his first goal for the club.
The home side made it three on 20 minutes when Tumelty volleyed a dropping ball through a crowd of bodies and into the net from the edge of the box following a corner.
However, Loughborough reduced the deficit on the half-hour mark as Hussein Issa finished into an empty net after Seth Locke had initially thwarted Gafar Abari.
The visitors looked to reduce the deficit further as Bullock made a crucial covering tackle before Locke produced a fine save to keep Malvern’s two-goal lead intact.
However, Malvern restored their three-goal advantage two minutes before half time when Brunt hooked a shot into the net from six-yards out after good work from Harry Clark down the right.
And Bullock sealed Malvern’s place in second round qualifying on 59 minutes with a tap in from close range after Brunt’s initial header from Clark’s cross came back off the inside of the post.
The Hillsiders handed a debut to Sid Grant from the bench and he went through one-on-one soon after only to take a heavy touch and allow the Loughborough goalkeeper to recover.
And Lee Hooper’s side felt they should have had a penalty soon after when Grant went through again and appeared to be pulled to the ground by his neck in the box.
However, the referee waved away Malvern’s appeals as the hosts saw out the remainder of the match to cruise to victory in first round qualifying.
Malvern are next in action against Bristol Manor Farm on Saturday, September 13 with kick-off at 3pm at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium.
