Mulbarton: Joe Pattison, David Ramsbottom, Jamie Butler, Mark Sutcliffe, Jesse Payne-Wilkins, Adam Brown, Josh Farrow, James McCloy, Simon Freemantle, Calvin Butler, Dale Simpson
Sub: Lewis Mace

Wanderers were missing five players from the precious match, and with no goalkeeper had to rely on two outfield players sharing the duty - keeping goal for a half each. Indeed the entire club was short this week and the final count of unavailable players reached 29 on Friday meaning that several players had to be signed on for the club on match day. In hindsight we needn't have worried as all three teams went on to win - with the As and Reserves showing particular resolve with heavily depleted sides to win their games away from home. As for our own win, it was never really in doubt; with Thetford struggling in Division 6 (our Reserves comfortably beat them 2 weeks ago) this was one of those mismatches that the Junior Cup often springs up in the early rounds.

Goals went in at regular intervals after Simpson had given us the lead on 7 minutes, capitalising on a defensive error and smashing the ball home from 15 yards. Dale doubled the lead on 15 minutes, latching onto a through-ball by Mark Sutcliffe. 2 minutes later Simon Freemantle opened his account after being assisted by Calvin Butler, then on 26 minutes Adam Brown headed home from close range before Jamie McCloy got his first of the season just a minute later to give us our fifth.

Just before half time we scored a quick-fire double with Calvin Butler first to a parried shot from Dale Simpson then McCloy twisting in the box before striking the ball past the Town keeper.

Half time: 7-0

At half time Joe Pattison came out of goal to be replaced by Josh Farrow and it was Pattison who got the next goal - converting a penalty after a trip in the box.

Calvin Butler was in the right place at the right time to tap in another Simpson rebound and McCloy secured his hat trick a minute later. Freemantle was next, followed by Pattison's second before Freemantle grabbed his hat trick on 60 minutes with a fierce shot that the keeper couldn't handle.

There were 3 goals disallowed for 'offside' and the Thetford keeper made a string of fine saves but there was nothing that the visitors could do to stop the onslaught, with Mulbarton attacking in numbers, using the full width of the pitch and playing some fine and intricate passes in and around the Town penalty area. Pattison was the third player to score a hat trick, playing 'keepy uppy' in the box before volleying home. Then Simpson finally got his third after several attempts when he dribbled past defenders in the box and blasted the ball into the net. Just before the end of the game Pattison scored his fourth, and our final goal of the game to make the score 16-0 and complete a confidence boosting 90 minutes.

Full time: 16-0

Whilst we won't learn much about ourselves in games like these it was pleasing to see the lads perform with a lot of confidence and some of the football was a delight to see. Rather than lowering our intensity levels once we were out of sight we continued to push and show our opponents no mercy. Credit to Thetford who stayed the course, but they were simply outclassed today by 11 players who were keen to impress with several players returning from absence next week.

Our reward for the win is an away tie against the winners of Belton FC and Thetford Rovers in the 2nd round.

Next week we travel to Brandon Town for a league game. Having only played twice in Division 2 so far we are already way behind the pace setters so we'll be determined to get some more points on the board, and hopefully some goals too.

Man of The Match: Simon Freemantle. A joy to watch on the ball and he had end product to his trickery, netting a hat trick.