Hitchin Town 1 Buntingford Town 4 BUNTINGFORD S FA Youth Cup campaign started with a bang as a hard-working display was capped with four well-taken strikes. The home side should have taken the lead, with Town keeper Will Cook being kept busy. And it ca

Hitchin Town 1

Buntingford Town 4

BUNTINGFORD'S FA Youth Cup campaign started with a bang as a hard-working display was capped with four well-taken strikes.

The home side should have taken the lead, with Town keeper Will Cook being kept busy.

And it came as a surprise, when it was Buntingford who opened the scoring after 22 minutes when Liam Beaumont's free-kick deceived the entire defence.

Six minutes into the second half, Hitchin were back in the game when a forward smashed home a strike from 16 yards.

The visitors had to weather another Hitchin storm and showed a lot of character to ­wrestle back control of the game.

And their efforts were rewarded when the lively Ricky Young ­swivelled in the box and unleashed a superb angled volley into the top right corner.

Buntingford were then awarded a penalty and Jamie Morriss sent the Hitchin keeper the wrong way.

Ricky Goddard, Liam Manning and Danny Apostolos then held firm, and Cook made a great save with 10 minutes left.

Buntingford made it 4-1 when Rob Verdia pounced on a ­defensive error.

- Buntingford will travel to ­Borehamwood, who knocked Royston Town out of the ­competition 7-0, next week in the second qualifying round.

Buntingford Town: Cook; Manning, Apostolos, Goddard; Beaumont, Shaughnessy (Evans), Randall, Bronti (Walsingham), Young; Welch (Verdia), Morriss.