Exeter City booked their passage to the next round of the FA Youth Cup with a hard fought victory at Ironmould Lane, Bristol, beating a robust and physical Brislington side by five goals to two after extra time.

In a first half which City completely dominated, they got the perfect start after only 2 minutes with a neatly worked free kick routine from Matty Bye resulted in a perfect delivery for Neil MARTIN to score with an excellent header. Brislington soaked up consistent pressure from the young Grecians and, with some excellent goalkeeping and stubborn defending, kept the score line at one nil until a surging run by Liam SERCOMBE right on the stroke of half time gave City a two nil advantage at the break.

City had been awarded a penalty in the 29th minute when Dean STAMP was brought down in the box, but the resulting penalty was saved by O'Brian in the Brislington goal.

City started the second half brightly enough and should have increased their lead, but it was Brislington who clawed their way back into the game, with two goals in the 55th and 66th minutes after the City defence was caught napping. The young Grecians still continued to press, but found themselves dragged into extra time with the scores level.

There was only one team who was going to win in extra time and the young Grecians' superior fitness and all round ability deservedly brought them their just rewards with goals from Joe ALLANSON (92 minutes), Stuart DAVIES (97 minutes) both set up by Dean Stamp, and STAMP himself getting on the score sheet with a goal in the 112th minute.

City can now look forward to another away tie at Gloucester City in a fortnight's time.

Team: WANNELL John, COLE, LONG, BYE, O'DONNELL, MARTIN, WANNELL Jake, SERCOMBE, DAVIES, STAMP, SHEPHARD.

Subs: ALLANSON for Wannell Jake 75m, LIDDLE for Davies 112m, WOOLLEY (not used) BURGESS (not used)

Mike Radford, Danny Connelly and all the players would sincerely like to thank all the travelling Grecian supporters, parents and families who made the trip to Brislington last night. The support was absolutely fantastic and it was very much appreciated.

They are also extremely grateful for the support and backing that we received from Steve Perryman, Paul Tisdale, Paul Buckle and other members of staff from Exeter City Football Club