Ashford Town0

Leyton Pennant2

(F.A. Vase 2nd Round) TWO goal hero Billy Cove took Leyton Pennant through to the next round of the Vase with another impressive striking display.

Cove stamped his authority on the match from the start, breaking clear of the Ashford defence in the opening minutes only to be denied a scoring chance by a last-ditch tackle from Ian Miles.

The Pennant defence were looking very disciplined, giving away only rare chances to an Ashford side who had scored 102 goals in last years league campaign.

At the other end the Tilley and Cove partnership was starting to create problems, with the latter having a great effort well saved by Simon Kent after a quarter of an hour.

The Lilywhites were then lucky to escape when Ashford defender Jim Heggarty missed a sitter, guiding his header to the wrong side of the post.

Andy Frost was then sent off after he pushed over a Pennant defender even though he had been awarded a free kick on the edge of the penalty box.

Despite being a man down the home side still had a lot of possession, but the visitors remained in charge and were by far the more dangerous side in attack.

A Tilley free kick on 34 minutes from the left was met at the far post by Cove, who frustratingly saw his header hit an upright.

But his disappointment was short lived, as just two minutes before the break he picked up a poor headed clearance from a corner on the left side of the penalty area and crashed the ball home.

Ashford came out for the second half in determined fashion and Pennant keeper Ling was soon called into action, saving well from Scott.

Gaps soon began to open up at the other end and the visitors had seven or eight goal scoring chances before Cove finally finished Ashford off.

With 15 minutes remaining Tilley swung over another free kick and Pennant's top scorer was again waiting at the far post to guide a header straight through the keeper's hands into the back of the net.

Seconds later Ashford were down to nine men with Heggarty being sent off for arguing. For the last ten minutes the Lilywhites made the most of their numerical advantage. Cove was only denied his hat-trick when he had a shot pushed onto the underside of the bar.

PENNANT: Ling, Barnes, Underhill, Waldron, Tickner, Campbell, Tilley, Notley, Cove, Milton and Bastian. Subs: DeGaris, Field, Barry, Hughes and TimmsCove cuts down Ashford for Pennant