Robins cruise through with scintilating second half show

Saturday 9th October. FA Trophy. 2nd Qfy Rd Didcot Town 1 Frome Town 5

Frome progressed in the FA Trophy after overcoming Didcot Town in the Second Qualifying Round at Loop Meadow Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Robins overcame an early scare to run out comfortable winners, thanks in no small part to some scintillating attacking football in the second half.

Noah Alabi gave the home side a sixth-minute lead when he broke the offside trap and kept his composure before slotting home, and an end-to-end opening half hour saw both sides pass up opportunities to score.

The equaliser came for Frome when a breakaway after a Didcot corner ended with Jon Davies tapping the ball into an empty net after James Ollis had seen his effort saved by the goalkeeper. Despite taking their time to grow into game, the Robins found themselves in front only minutes later when Marcus Mapstone found himself in the perfect position to head home a Davies cross after the home side only half-cleared a corner.

The goal of the afternoon arrived early in the second half though. Some excellent work from Ollis down the right wing ended with him picking out Joe O’Loughlin on the opposite side of the box and after taking a touch to steady himself, the wing-back lashed a powerful effort into the top corner of the Didcot net.

After seeing out some pressure from the home side, Frome wrapped up the win in the final ten minutes thanks to two more excellent goals.

Ollis got himself on the scoresheet when he bundled the ball over the line after a lovely touch from Rex Mannings had set substitute Kane Simpson away down the right wing, and Mannings wrapped up the scoring when he drove home a shot from outside of the penalty area.

The win means the Robins are in the hat for the Third Qualifying Round but attention returns to league action next weekend with Sholing making the trip to Badgers Hill for a 3pm kick-off.