Hatfield Town 3 Ely City 7

ELY City’s Wembley dream started to gather momentum on Saturday as they smashed seven past Hatfield Town.

The Robin’s were in superlative form in attack, with a hat-trick from Andrew Claydon and goals from Josh Bridgeman, Richard Chadwick, Nick Impey and Austen Diaper securing a memorable win.

It is the first time Alan Alsop’s men have made it through to the third round of the lucrative competition, with ties set to be played on December 8.

Despite Ely’s eventual domination, it was Hatfield who took the lead after six minutes, Jay Welsh curling home a superb free-kick from the edge of the box.

Less than 10 minutes later though, and Ely were level as Claydon turned in Luke Parkinson’s low cross.

The Robins moved ahead in the 18th minute as Claydon forced home from close range after the Hatfield keeper did superbly to stop twice from Parkinson’s penalty kick.

Claydon turned provider five minutes later as he fed Chadwick from the byline, the wide man making no mistake from close range.

Bridgeman made it 4-1, making no mistake from the penalty spot after Chadwick was bundled over in the box, and Claydon completed a first-half hat-trick by mopping up from close range after Adam Murray’s header was spilled by the goalkeeper.

The Robins’ remained in control after the break and rubbed further salt into the wound less than a minute after the restart as Nick Impey finished neatly from inside the box, collecting Chadwick’s flick-on.

The visitors completed their scoring just shy of the hour mark as substitute Austen Diaper benefitted from some fine play down the wing from Luke and Sam Parkinson to smash low past the Hatfield keeper.

Hatfield continued to battle despite being largely outplayed and they pulled two later goals back to restore some pride, Matt Hodges scoring in the 83rd minute and Darrell Smith adding a third in the 88th.