A hat-trick from John Lawless, two from Francis Barry and one from Muktar Mahama comfortably saw AFC Liverpool through to the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup with Budweiser with the 6-3 scoreline somewhat flattering the hosts.

The Reds were ahead within six minutes when after Nevil Picton’s fierce drive rebounded off Lee Madin, the ball spun out to Mahama who had the composure to set himself before firing across Thomas Baldwin into the far corner.

The hosts responded through a couple of half chances. Ciaran Donnelly drove into the arms of Carl Williams following a short corner and Marco Cobb drove wide from the edge of the area but it was clinical finishing from Lawless that extended the Reds’ lead on fourteen minutes. Receiving the ball from a Williams’ clearance with vociferous claims of offside from the Blackpool backline, Lawless ignored the protests and calmly slotted the ball past Baldwin, igniting even louder protestations from the home side’s bench.

A close offside decision denied Madin his first goal for the club, chalking off a fine overhead finish before Lawless came within a whisker of grabbing a second when he skipped his way to the bye-line before firing across the face of the goal.

The hosts were handed a way back into the match when they were awarded a penalty after a seemingly innocuous should barge by Jack Sinnott on Donnelly was deemed illegal by the linesman, though not in the first instance by the referee. After a short delay, in which Reds’ manager Paul Moore was sent to the stands following a heated exchange of views with the Blackpool bench, for which they were merely given a stern talking to, Donnelly converted the spot kick.

Any thoughts of a Blackpool comeback though were put on the back burner five minutes into the second half when Lawless claimed his second of the game, sliding in at the back post to convert Stephen Groves’ cross which rounded off a fine counterattack.

Groves was in the mix for the Reds’ fourth goal as it was his deflected cross that sat up nicely for Barry to fire into the corner from the edge of the box and Barry scored his second just two minutes later when his looping header dropped over Baldwin into the far corner.

Mahama was close to making it six when Baldwin failed to hold Lawless’ driven free kick but the Reds’ winger couldn’t quite force the ball over the line in the ensuing scramble before the Reds’ defence lost concentration and allowed the home side to pull a goal back when Donnelly’s cross picked out Kevan Ford at the back post.

The result was put beyond doubt on eighty minutes when Steve Corris’ ball freed Mahama down the right, with the Reds’ winger beating Baldwin to the ball to square for Lawless to tap into an unguarded net to claim his first hat-trick for AFC Liverpool.

Marc Beattie grabbed a late consolation with a fine volley from the edge of the area while Chris Brown and Shaun Harris both forced Baldwin into good saves as AFC Liverpool booked themselves an FA Cup derby matchup with landlords Prescot Cables on August 25th.

AFC Blackpool 3-6 AFC Liverpool

Donnelly (p)42′ Mahama 6′

Ford 70′ Lawless 14′, 50′, 80′

Beattie 83′ Barry 63′, 65′

Attendance: 92

AFC Liverpool: 1.Carl Williams 2.Stephen Groves 3.Shaun Harris 4.Steve Corris (C) 5.Jack Sinnott 6.Nevil Picton 7.Mukta Mahama 8.Dan Wilkinson 9.Lee Madin (14.Chris Brown 76′) 10.John Lawless (16.Georges Mboa 81′) 11.Franny Barry (15.Adam Waterhouse 71′)

Unused Sub: 12.Chris Williams

AFC Blackpool: 1.Thomas Baldwin 2.Grant Dell 3.Damien Hancock 4.Adam Freeland 5.Kevan Ford 6.Marco Cobb 7.Jason Dodwell (15.Ryan Vaughan 68′) 8.Martin Baird (C) 9.Marc Beattie 10.Ben Waddington (14.Shane Hull 85′) 11.Ciaran Donnelly

Unused Subs: 12.Ben Duffield 16.Michael Nolan

Photo courtesy of Dave Williams.