Worthing cruise into next round

Rebels joint-boss Alan Pook is hoping for a home draw. He said: "It will be exciting on Monday. All I hope for is a home draw. It doesn't matter who it's against."

Worthing were missing Sonny Cobbs, top-scorer Sam Gargan and Tarkan Mustafa from their 2-1 at Horsham YMCA on Tuesday, which meant Andy Alexander and veteran Paul Rogers both made their first starts of the season.

Rebels could easily have been two or three ahead before they took a 15th-minute lead.

Sam Francis missed a sitter to give Worthing the lead on two minutes when he blazed over from eight yards, before Matt Phelan's cross-shot went just the wrong side of the far post.

Phelan then fired over from 18 yards before he raced onto Ben Johnson's excellent pass to clip the ball past the onrushing Walton keeper Rob Webb to give Rebels the lead on 15 minutes.

Six minutes later, Worthing doubled their advantage. Karl Akehurst played a short corner to Roy Pook, who was brought down in the penalty area and Francis smashed the spot-kick into the roof of the net.

Dan Nwanze miss-hit Walton's first opening on 27 minutes and Sam Page then headed wide but Walton chances were otherwise few and far between.

Just six minutes into the second half, Rebels made the sure of the result. After Webb had produced an outstanding save to keep out Francis' downward header, the resulting clearance only found its way to Johnson, whose 25-yard shot flew over Webb's head into the top corner.

Worthing keeper Rikki Banks made a couple of smart stops from Richard Thompson and Nwanze late on but Rebels' place in the next round was never in doubt.

WORTHING: Banks; R.Pook, Axten, Andrews, Rogers; Akehurst, Day, Johnson, Phelan; Francis, Alexander. Subs: Brotherton, Ekoku (Phelan, Alexander 69), Lutwyche (Francis 86). Att: 375.