Flanagan’s Onions 1 Southampton Rangers 5

Southampton Rangers blew away First Division side Flanagan’s Onions in their FA Cup first-round replay last night at Goose Gosling Field to advance to the quarter-finals.

A close game on Sunday turned out to be one-sided in the end as two first-half goals sent Rangers on their way, one from the penalty spot and the other an own goal midway through the half.

And although Onions made it close with a well-taken goal on the half-hour from Corey Davis, Rangers ran out deserved winners after scoring three more times in the second half.

“We were hoping we could have put it to rest on the weekend but it worked in our benefit because Wednesday night is usually a training night anyway,” said Keith Jennings, the Rangers coach.

Rangers go into Friday’s quarter-final draw along with Dandy Town, PHC Zebras, Devonshire Cougars, Boulevard, Robin Hood, Hamilton Parish and Young Men’s Social Club, the lone First Division team.

“It was a much better performance, they knew that we needed to win tonight,” Jennings added.

Akale Bean, whose equaliser on Sunday earned Rangers the replay with a 1-1 draw, converted an early penalty after being fouled by goalkeeper Stephen Gould. Onions, last year’s beaten FA Cup finalists, settled down after that and began to offer some resistance only to go further behind midway through the half when Jesse Seymour low, hard cross from the left was turned into his own net by defender Nicholas Dunkle.

Onions did get back into the match in the 31st minute when Davis spotted goalkeeper Sean Perinchief out of his six-yard box and lobbed the ball over his head from 25 yards. Captain Ezekiel Stoneham almost restored the Rangers two-goal lead a couple of minutes later when he smashed a shot inches past the post.

Then Onions went close again a minute before the break when Gavin Thomason wasted a good chance after a good ball put him clear. However, Thomas blasted first time over the bar from a good position inside the box.

The outcome might have been different for Onions had Davis found the net with his shot from the left side of the box that smashed against the top of the near upright just 55 seconds after the restart.

Eight minutes later Rangers went 3-1 up when a long ball forward sent Seymour through on the right. Favouring his left foot, he beat the defender Dunkle, cut in towards the edge of the box and avoided a challenge before hitting a curling shot into the far corner.

Onions started to fade midway through the second half as Rangers replaced Bean with Keedai Astwood and striker Shaki Swan for defender Kemon Simons. They kept pressing in search of more goals with Seymour lifting a shot over the bar.

Swan, who had been on the field just four minutes, made it 4-1 in the 74th minute when he turned a cross into the far bottom corner despite the goalkeeper getting a hand to it. Seymour struck the post with his effort soon after before Astwood closed out the scoring in the 88th minute after taking a pass from Swan and lifting his shot into the roof of the net from 15 yards.

Onions will now focus on their promotion push after being relegated last season.

“We obviously wanted to do well in the cup, but all is not lost, we’re joint top in the league so now we can focus on that,” said Mick Ward, the team’s coach.

“Hopefully there will be no more distractions and we have a lot of home games. Hopefully we can put a good run together and kick on in the league.”