Whitehaven reached the semi-final of the Fred Conway County Cup with an emphatic 8-1 win at Greystoke.
They join Penrith and holders Carlisle City, with the fourth quarter final between Workington and Carlisle scheduled for March 7 at Borough Park.
The west Cumbrians got off to a great start after only five minutes. Carl Denver was fouled in the box and Lewis Tidy drilled home the subsequent penalty.
A second goal came on 14 minutes when Gareth Brunton did really well to curl a powerful shot into the top corner.
After that burst of scoring the game became rather scrappy, littered with fouls and matters came to a head on 35 minutes when six players were involved in a bust up and two of them – one from each side – were shown red cards.
Greystoke reacted to this by pulling a goal back through Matt Powell to give them hope but in first-half injury time Whitehaven restored their two goal advantage. Tom {Powell started and finished a move down the left, side-footing the final pass beyond the home keeper.
On the hour the game really opened-up with Greystoke running-out of steam and Whitehaven responded by racking up the goals.
The best came on 62 minutes when right-back Paul Lomas – their man of the match – cleverly brought down a high ball, flicked it past a Greystoke player before delivering a great ball to Owen Woodburn. He still had work to do but finished well from inside the box.
In the closing quarter of the game Whitehaven added four further goals from Matt Reed, Denver, Travis Fyfe and Aidan Smith to cap a fine second-half display and ease into the semi-finals.
