Stourbridge 1 Grantham Town 4

Barcelos had previously netted a hat-trick against us for Oxford City back in March 2011 and clearly has a liking for the War Memorial Ground!

In truth a much changed Glassboys side were soundly beaten in the end by a confident and determined Grantham side who deserved their place in the last eight of the Integro League Cup, but Stourbridge were left to rue some poor defensive errors that ultimately left them with too much to do.
Barcelos had already glanced a 4th minute header wide before he was gifted the easiest of goals three minutes later. A lack of communication led to a calamitous mix-up on the edge of the box between Canavan and Wedderburn and Dasalou capitalised nipped in with Malhotra out of position to leave Barcelos to walk the ball into an empty net.

Grantham doubled their lead on 15 minutes with Dasalou getting the better of Wedderburn close to the by-line before turning the ball back to Koopowitz and his deep right-wing cross towards the back of the box was met by Curtis Burrows and his crisp shot on the volley found the bottom corner of the net.

Stourbridge rallied strongly though. A flick by Benbow into the path of Canavan saw the midfielder poke his shot wide from 20 yards. Brown then had a great chance after beating the offside trap to run on to a ball from McPike to get through on goal, but he delayed his shot before Kieran Preston blocked his close range effort. On 24 minutes Jacob Wedderburn turned the ball home after Preston spilled a corner from Canavan, however the referee had spotted an infringement and blew for a foul. A minute later Benbow reduced the arrears in typical fashion. A Probert free-kick saw Brown challenge for a header on the edge of the area and the ball dropped towards Benbow who crashed a 25-yard shot past the helpless Preston. Further Stourbridge pressure saw a left-wing cross from McPike headed out by the visitors to Canavan and his shot was touched round the post for a corner. From Canavan's flag-kick Wedderburn's hanging header was cleared off the line. Our momentum was halted though in the 35th minute when a short back-pass by Probert was pounced upon by Barcelos who comfortably finished low past Malhotra inside the post.

The second-half was largely controlled by the visitors and they always looked the more likelier side to score. Benbow flashed one centre from the right across the face of the goal, which evaded Smikle in the middle, but at the other end Dasalou laid on another chance for Barcelos on 72 minutes, but his volley drew a sharp save from Malhotra. Shortly afterwards though Barcelos broke clear and he slotted away with aplomb to secure his hat-trick and put the outcome beyond doubt. Sub Danny Meadows almost made it five on 76 minutes, beating Probert before firing in a shot that was parried by Malhotra for a corner.

Stourbridge now turn their attentions to a pair of crucial home league games coming up this weekend and Monday, while Grantham ride high on the back of a 14-game unbeaten run and the league meeting at Grantham on February 11th will be a stern test for Gary Hackett's men, even with the return of several of tonight's rested players.