North Walsham Town 3, Horsford 2IN the Norfolk Senior Cup, after a rather drab and uninspiring third-round clash played under grey skies, North Walsham emerged with a rather fortuitous victory thanks to a hat-trick by Craig Knowles.

North Walsham Town 3, Horsford 2

IN the Norfolk Senior Cup, after a rather drab and uninspiring third-round clash played under grey skies, North Walsham emerged with a rather fortuitous victory thanks to a hat-trick by Craig Knowles.

Musgrove was forced into changes due to the unavailability of Ramsbottom and the late arrival of Davies. Knowles started in a striking role alongside Clarke and Lythgoe slotted in at full-back with Grand moving across to the heart of defence.

Horsford made the much brighter start and immediately put Town on the back foot. They gained a deserved opening goal within 10 minutes when a

left-wing cross caught the Town back line all at sea and was unconventionally converted by Tidy.

Town were back on level terms moments later however when a long range effort from Craig Knowles took a wicked bounce on the six-yard line, completing deceiving the visiting keeper and nestling in the net.

Despite equalising, Town were still very lacklustre in their approach and were very thankful for the performance of Kellett who kept them in the game with a number of fine saves. He seemed unbeatable until Miller made an ill-timed tackle in the area and Nicholls confidently converted the penalty.

Despite a stern talking to at half-time Town's performance in the second half was still not up to the standards set in the previous weeks.

They did, however, grab an equaliser before the hour when Knowles robbed his marker and coolly finished from 20 yards.

Musgrove then introduced Boswell and Davies in an attempt to galvanise the Angels' performance but not much improved and as the game entered the latter stages they were thankful for a goal-line block

from Grand.

As extra time beckoned, Town sealed their place in the next round when Knowles leapt high at the far post and his header found its way into the bottom corner, despite the attempts of the Horsford defence.

This was particularly harsh on Horsford who, for large parts of the game, were the better side and

looked set to claim the scalp of their Premier Division opponents.