FA Cup result: Warrington Rylands beat Thackey 4-0

They were certainly made to sweat at Gorsey Lane on Saturday by Thackley, who ply their trade two divisions below Blues but managed to keep the first qualifying round tie scoreless until the later stages.

Once Dylan Dwyer broke the deadlock with his first goal for the club 11 minutes from time, however, the floodgates opened.

Dylan Dwyer wheels away after opening the scoring (Image: Mark Percy)

Three more goals were added in injury time after the visitors had Mark Everingham sent off, with Luke Porter adding the second before Jake Burton netted a late brace to round off a 4-0 win and seal their place in the second qualifying round, the draw for which takes place on Monday.

After the game, Duffy said he was pleased to see his side stick to their principles in the faith that it would eventually open the Bradford-based side up.

“We’re obviously really pleased,” he said.

“They’re a few divisions below us but credit to them – they made it tough for us, especially in the first half.

“We needed to continue moving the ball and that’s what we told them at half time.

“We didn’t want to go too big too early – we still wanted to move the ball down the sides of them and make them run on a roasting hot day.

“You can tire easily when that happens and I thought we did that really well.

“Once we got the first goal, the shackles were off. The game opened up and we managed to score another three.”

Now, Blues will be hoping their cup success can be taken into the Northern Premier League in order to get their Premier Division campaign moving again.

One win from their first six games has them currently occupying a relegation place in the embryonic league table but with this week offering a chance to rest up with no midweek games, there is a chance for Duffy and his coaching staff to get to work ahead of a trip to Workington on Saturday.

“Notoriously, the first couple of weeks of the season is a slog and there’s no getting away from that, but now we can rest and recover,” he said.

“We can do a little more work on the training pitch as well with Tuesday and Thursday sessions.

“We’ll continue to work hard because we’ve got a really good group, but they are young.

“There will be times where they look a bit naïve but sometimes the only way to learn is to feel the pain on the pitch.

“We’re trying to educate them as quick as possible but there’s some really promising players in there.”

Mark Duffy applauds the Gorsey Lane crowd after Saturday's FA Cup win (Image: Mark Percy)