LAVERSTOCK and Ford became the first team to book their place in the semi-finals of the Wiltshire Senior Cup, thanks to a 2-1 win at Wiltshire Premier side Cricklade.

Travelling north of Swindon for the tie, Lavvy endured an early onslaught from their hosts who were trying to take advantage of strong winds and a downward slope.

The visitors opened the scoring with their first real effort.

The returning Archie Lovegrove’s 20-yard effort took a wicked deflection and found the bottom corner.

Soon after Cricklade rallied and had it not been for the brilliant reflexes of Alexis Aguer they would have levelled.

However, on 35 minutes, Lovegrove gave a cheap free-kick away near the touchline and the resulting set piece flew into the top corner.

The second half saw a more dominant Lavvy use the conditions in their favour. They missed a hatful of chances, before just after the hour mark Chas Sykes scored the winner.

Manager Liam McConnell said afterwards “It’s safe to say that isn’t the kind of pitch we’re used to and the conditions made the football painful to watch at times.

"The lads were tested in the first half and fair play to Cricklade they are a league lower and had nothing to lose."

He added: "They deserved to be level at half-time. We had more control in the second half but still had to get ourselves over the line.

"Those kind of games are built for upsets but we managed to contain that threat and in the end made it through unscathed."

This Saturday, Laverstock are in league action at home to US Portsmouth.