Ide Hill bounced back from their humbling defeat to Chipstead with a comfortable victory against Fleetdown in the first round of the Sevenoaks Charity Cup.
Manager Paul McDonagh welcomed captain Phil Alteirac back from injury as well as Craig Jackson and Ben Pearson, and the home team knew they had to put in a much better performance and not let their previous defeat undo their good start to the season. And Ide Hill started with real intent and purpose, carving through the Fleetdown defence with regularity and forcing the visiting goalkeeper into a number of saves.
Ide Hill got the deserved breakthrough after 15 minutes, a Columb Grant inswinging corner was met by the rising Pearson who guided a lovely header into the top corner for his third of the season. The hosts continued to dominate, Matt Bunn hitting the post with a powerful header as the home team searched for the second.
After much frustration and a plethora of squandered chances, the lead was doubled after half an hour; Jack Edmeads firing a rasping free kick past the stranded keeper from 20 yards to give the hosts breathing space as they headed in to the break.
Fleetdown worked themselves back into the game just after half time though, a long range drive was palmed out by Ide Hill goalkeeper George Dance-Harvey, but he could do nothing to stop the follow up being swept in by Freddy Hoare.
Ide Hill dusted themselves off and continued to press, with Grant bending a fine 20-yard shot against the bar after an hour. The hosts got their third via the penalty spot; Bunn pierced the back line and was brought down by the keeper, with Ben Holder slotting home the spot kick for his first of the season.
Holder then doubled his tally and put the game to bed with a second penalty with 10 minutes to go; Heath this time brought down, and Holder firing in to take Ide Hill to 4-1. Fleetdown did pull one more back in the final minutes, Sean Ryan following up a good penalty save from Dance-Harvey to tap in to an empty net.
So Ide Hill move in to the next round of a cup that has been good to them in recent years; next week they return to league action against Halls AFC knowing that a win will keep them at the top of the league ahead of the chasing pack.
