Aylesbury made it through to the League Cup semi finals for the first time in 22 years by despatching Bishops Cleeve 2-0 on their own turf.

Having created plenty of second half chances, the game wasn’t secured until Reece Cameron smashed home the second goal with two minutes remaining.

Back in the starting eleven due to Lea Coulter and Tre Mitford’s unavailability, the youngster collected a square pass before leathering a swerving shot that goalkeeper Marc Wright, for the second time of the night, won’t have been happy at being beaten by due to its centre of goal trajectory, despite the power.

After a long journey, in blustery conditions and on a difficult pitch, United acquitted themselves well and were soon pressuring their Division One South & West hosts.

In the 5th minute Cameron fed Bruno Brito – the other returnee having missed the narrow weekend defeat at Barton Rovers – whose snapshot on the turn had to be saved by Wright.

That lead to a succession of three corners that had to be strongly defended in the swirling wind, the third of which, from Cameron, curled goalwards before landing on top of the net.

The Mitres had their first sight of goal with 10 on the clock, as a long ball held up in the wind and dropped kindly for Jacob Davidge, Cleeve’s top scorer connecting well with a volley which had to be pushed wide by Zaki Oualah.

A minute later and United went close again through Jordon Frederick this time, getting forward to take Cameron’s pass before sending a low shot wide across goal.

Similarly, French and Brito both missed the target within seconds of each other with the former dragging a long shot well wide as the ball fell to him outside the box, whilst Brito could only toe poke over the bar having got the better of a defender to collect Bewley’s raking crossfield pass.

The hosts were finding it difficult to find a way through a resolute Ducks defence, and, aside from his earlier save, Oualah was enjoying a quiet first half. The closest Cleeve were to come was a half-cleared attack where the broke for Jack Horrell who hammered it over the bar from 20 yards.

Eleven minutes from the interval and some intricate involving French and Brito saw the latter flick the ball into the path of Cameron who found himself one-on-one with the keeper but slotted wide.

In almost identical fashion, the deadlock was broken just a few moments afterwards. Sonny French provided the flick this time, setting Josh Baines free and he decided to take an early shot as the ball sat up for him, which seemed to catch out Wright who dived over the ball. 1-0 Aylesbury

Half-time: Bishops Cleeve 0-1 Aylesbury

Bishops Cleeve emerged after the break clearly fired up by their manager’s team talk, and set about with renewed purpose. They only had an early shot, flashed over the bar, to show for their efforts though as United continued to be impenetrable.

Having resisted the early pressure, Aylesbury then hit the woodwork with their first attack of the half when a ball inside found Brito to produce a typically excellent shot from range that he was unlucky to see clip the outside of the post.

Aylesbury continued to look the more likely to add to the scoring and only a goalline block prevented Ryan Kinnane from doing so. A cleverly disguised free kick set Cameron away down the left; his fizzing cross-cum-shot was parried by Wright straight into the path of Kinnane, who was stopped from bundling the ball home by Pates on the line.

The Ducks did then have the ball in the net when Bewley did superbly to charge in and win the ball back before playing it low across goal for Brito to turn in, only for the goal to be chalked off by the linesman’s raised flag.

Again, Cleeve were being restricted to long shots as another from Horrell cleared the crossbar, and another from the same player was easily dived on by the underemployed Oualah.

French should have wrapped the tie up when he received a free kick, taking it past his marker with great skill, before rolling a shot wide of the target.

Despite all the chances for Aylesbury, and apparent lack of threat on their goal, there was always the opportunity for the hosts to snatch a leveller at any stage, so when Cameron finally added number two there was relief that the game at last looked safe. 2-0 Aylesbury

To their credit, Bishops Cleeve continued to try and force a way back into the game, and they nearly had one from a brief scramble at a corner kick, but it wasn’t to be their night.

In stoppage time French found Cameron whose dribble and shot forced a save from Wright, in what was to be the last action of the night before Ms Garratt brought an end to proceedings.

An excellent and well deserved win for the Ducks, whose reward is a semi final visit to former Division One Central counterparts St Ives Town, who won promotion at the end of last season via the playoffs.