A job well done, says Preece (From Northwich Guardian)

Northwich Victoria manager Andy Preece praises players' professionalism

7:08pm Saturday 26th September 2009 in Vics By Andrew Simpson

ANDY Preece praised Northwich Victoria’s goal hero Mark Danks following their FA Cup rout of Bardon Hill Sports.

The 25-year-old scored five in their 8-0 FA Cup Second Qualifying Round victory, taking his season’s tally to nine goals in seven starts.

“It will be great for his confidence,” said the Vics boss.

“At times you want your strikers to be greedy so they can score. He had plenty of opportunities today and he took five.

“He can get better, but it’s nice that our strikers are scoring goals. Danksy has a decent record at this level and we know what he can do.”

Preece admitted he felt in part relief to have seen off opponents that play four levels below his team.

The hosts led after 10 minutes when Danks scored from the spot after he had been felled by Sam Surridge, then added a second soon afterwards.

Simon Grand slotted home Declan Edwards’ cross before the break to end the contest.

“We are happy to get through to the next round unscathed,” said Preece.

“I said beforehand that if we play how we know we can then we should go through. That’s not being disrespectful to the opposition.

“They play four leagues below us and we would be expected to beat them, so the key for us was to get our noses in front as early as possible.

“We did that and once Mark Danks scored the second then I felt that killed them off. To be fair they kept going and did have one or two moments and they kept trying to play football.

“We had to be on our toes.”

Vics shut out the men from Leicestershire to keep a clean sheet, adding five second half goals to swell their tally.

Danks claimed three more, while Grand and Wayne Riley accounted for the others.

“It would have hurt had they nicked a goal,” added Preece.

“That would have taken the gloss of things from my point of view so it’s nice to keep a clean sheet.

“It’s tough to keep going when the game is won or it’s one-sided. It’s about keeping switched-on and keeping on at each other.

“On the whole we did that, but it is difficult.

“I felt the players went about the game in the right way.

“We scored eight goals, created loads of chances and kept them [Bardon Hill] out at the other end. There are lots of positives.”

The draw for next month’s third qualifying round takes place on Monday lunchtime.