Armson and Walker ease Saints into the next round

Goals from Jimmy Armson and Glenn Walker capped an excellent second half performance as saints beat Stockport 2-0 in Tuesday’s replay.

Following a stuttering first half at St James Park in which the teams cancelled each other out, Kevin Wilkin’s side emerged worthy winners.

The first half had chances for both sides from which more clinical finishing would have made this a different game.

Gareth Dean cleared off the line from Courtney Meppen-Walters’ header and Danny Lloyd scuffed his shot when well placed while at the other end Glenn Walker shot straight at Hinchliffe with the goal beckoning.

Saints finally broke the deadlock ten minutes after the restart with the first of both goals which were set up by Lee Ndlovu and were of the highest quality.

Ndlovu held off the attentions of three defenders to play a perfectly weighted pass for Armson whose angled run and finish past keeper Ben Hinchliffe were exquisite.

The second goal came 12 minutes later when Armson found Ndlovu who crossed for Glenn Walker to shoot deftly past Hinchliffe into the corner of the net, leaving the keeper wrong-footed.

There was no way back for County with Laurie Walker largely untroubled. The referee surprisingly showed eight yellow cards in a game with barely a mistimed tackled, dissent being the main culprit on both sides.

Wilkin said: “We started the game well but drifted off a bit. The second half was different.

“Lee Ndlovu was fantastic for us this evening, holding it up and providing two assists. Nobody works harder for the team than Lee and Steve [Diggin].

“David Moyo came in for Ellis Myles and did well. He is different to Ellis but he made good decisions and offers another point of attack for us.

“We passed the ball so well in the second half and kept the ball well. I’m delighted to be into the next round and we have a great opportunity to go further.”