Aylesbury made comfortable progress to the Berks & Bucks Cup quarter finals as they hit Shrivenham for six to record their biggest away win for 14-years.
United put in a confident display to dispatch their Hellenic League hosts, even with a team showing a number of changes from their weekend win at Dunstable.
They could have been ahead as early as the second minute when Ollie Jones – making his first start for the club having recovered from injury – hit the post having been set up by Tre Mitford – also making his first start having recently returned to the club.
Shrivenham then threatened for the first time as a sloppy defensive moment saw a ball into the box not dealt with, allowing Sean McKeon a shooting opportunity from which he hammered over the bar.
In truth though, threats to the Ducks’ goal were scarce and as it seemed only a matter of time, the opener duly arrived after twelve minutes.
Jeanmal Prosper crafted a delightful cross from the right where Mitford got between defenders. His header was saved by Mike Alexander but Jake Bewley was on hand to rifle home the rebound. 1-0 Aylesbury
One quickly became two as the lead was doubled in the very next minute. After the ball had been worked across the pitch, Prosper took aim from 35-yards and found the bottom left corner with a perfectly placed strike just out of the diving Alexander’s reach. 2-0 Aylesbury
Six minutes later Matt Peake-Pijnen made good progress down the left to setup Harry Jones with a well weighted through ball, but the young winger was unable to generate suitable power in his shot to trouble Alexander.
United’s third arrived on 27 minutes, with Bewley turning provider this time. Jack Wood brought the ball out of defence on a 50-yard dribble before spreading it wide to Bewley. His excellent swirling cross picked out his skipper who had continued his run, and though Alexander saved the initial header he was left helpless as Wood tucked home at the second attempt. 3-0 Aylesbury
The game then entered something of lull before Shrivenham fashioned their best opening of the match. A through ball dissected the Aylesbury defence to leave McKeon in on goal, where he cut back to give himself a better angle but placed his effort wide of the target.
Aylesbury ended the half strongly with Bewley popping up on the right but firing a shot across goal on his weaker right foot with only the keeper to beat, and then Mitford getting the better of the defence but seeing his half volley deflected into the side netting.
Half-time: Shrivenham 0-3 Aylesbury
With the game all but over as a contest, Aylesbury might have been forgiven for easing up after the interval, but that clearly wasn’t to be the case as within four minutes of the restart they had a fourth goal.
Ollie Jones sent a neat ball over the defence for Mitford to run onto, and he waited calmly for the ball to drop before finishing with aplomb for his first goal back with the Ducks. 4-0 Aylesbury
Eight minutes later and Callum Mapley became the third member of the back four to find the net, as he rose to guide home Peake-Pijnen’s superbly delivered corner kick. 5-0 Aylesbury
Still the pressure was unrelenting; Max Hercules – only on the pitch for seven minutes having been introduced as part of a double substitution – cracked home a left footed shot after Mitford’s surging run across the box to make it three goals in 14 minutes for United. 6-0 Aylesbury
He could have had another seconds later when a productive run took him into the box but he flashed the shot wide beyond the target.
Good combination between Mitford and Hercules then ended with the former seeing a shot well tipped over by beleaguered keeper Alexander, as United tried to walk in a seventh.
Shrivenham registered an effort on goal midway through the half when some neat passing eventually found Joey Broadbank who slashed a shot harmlessly wide, but they did better on 71 minutes when Archie Davis had to make a save to turn wide a shot from the edge of the area.
The Ducks continued to pepper the home goal with shots as the minutes went by – Ollie Jones wasn’t far away from a goal on his full debut after a corner kick was played back to him, whilst Peake-Pijnen tried to complete the set of defender’s goals but his cross-cum-shot missed the target.
In the final five minutes Alexander made another save to keep out a fierce driven shot from Harry Jones after a complete miscue from Ben Seaton had fallen kindly for him, and in stoppage time Alexander was there again to deny Hercules this time and keep the scoreline down to six.
A very satisfying evening’s work for the Ducks who now wait to learn their quarter final opponents with the likes of MK Dons/Reading still in the competition, but having scored eleven goals from their two fixtures so far have every reason to look forward to the next round.
