Efficient Hawks delight Lee Bradbury in FA Cup

Goals in either half from Marvin Morgan and Dan Strugnell eased the Westleigh Park outfit past their Ryman League division north hosts.

The visitors made sure a Cup upset was not on the cards with an efficient and professional performance.

And Bradbury felt his team did well to adapt to their difficult surroundings.

‘It was never going to be easy on a hard pitch with the ball bobbling around,’ said the Hawks boss.

‘We had to change our style of play and go a bit longer than usual.

‘It was important we didn’t get caught trying to pass the ball out from the back.

‘We went with two big lads up front and their strength and experience paid off.’

The Hawks started on the front foot and created the best of the early chances with Matt Paterson and Scott Donnelly both sending efforts wide.

The visitors finally made their pressure count on the half-hour mark when Morgan broke his duck for the club.

He cut into the area before firing a shot past James Marrable and Bradbury reckons it will be a confidence-booster to his striker.

‘The goal will do him the world of good,’ said the boss.

‘He showed his strength against two defenders who were willing to go toe-to-toe with him.

‘It was Marvin who came out on top and that will only help him breed more confidence.

‘Once we got our first goal, Aveley were only going to hurt us on the counter-attack or from a set-piece. We made sure we plugged any holes and they weren’t able to hurt us much.’

Aveley had their best spell at the start of the second half when they went closest to an equaliser.

Liam Nash fired a shot towards the bottom corner but Hawks goalkeeper Ryan Young produced an excellent one-handed save to keep it out.

Strugnell ended Aveley’s resistance with a second goal eight minutes from the end.

Substitute Ben Swallow delivered a corner and Strugnell powered his header past Marrable at the near post.

Bradbury was pleased to see his team keep a rare clean sheet and insisted 37-year-old Pedro Monteiro, who was preferred to Manny Monthe at centre-back, played a key role.

‘We played well, kept our discipline and created lots of chances,’ he said.

‘Pedro did a fantastic job for us at the back.

‘And he did exactly the same against Larkhall in the last round.

‘If he keeps playing like this he will be involved a lot more than he planned.’

Hawks: Young, Davies, Blanchett, Stock, Strugnell, Monteiro, Clifton, Donnelly, Paterson, Morgan (Mullings, 70min), Azeez (Swallow, 70min). Att: 132