ANDOVER Town’s impressive FA Cup run came to an abrupt end on Saturday as they were thrashed 5-0 by higher league opponents, Farnborough FC.

The Portway side struggled against the current Southern League Division One Central League leaders, who boasted a number of ex-professionals in their starting line-up.

Meanwhile Andover, who have had a difficult start to their Wessex Premier League campaign, faced a number of injury concerns.

Craig Blakeman and Liam Gilbert were both missing from the starting line-up, forcing John Robson to name Ryan Inskip and Zondi Chunga in their place.

Town, playing in the first qualifying round for the first time in their history, struggled from the start with ex-QPR and Gillingham forward Dennis Oli causing problems for their makeshift defence.

Farnborough took the lead when Eddie Smith curled a spectacular free-kick past the fingertips of goalkeeper Craig Atkinson.

Smith doubled Farnborough’s lead later in the first half in a similar fashion, as his free-kick from 25 yards rocketed into the top left corner.

Farnborough almost added a third shortly before half-time after Oli and Jamie Cureton combined to challenge the town goalkeeper, with Cureton’s low shot rebounding off the outside of the post.

Andover were forced to use their substitutes early in the second half after Ryan Inskip and Craig Stanley were both stretchered off.

Callum Appleby and J J Tucker were their replacements.

However, fresh legs couldn’t stop the Southern League side from increasing their lead further in the second half.

Farnborough’s third came when Josh Huggins latched on to Smith’s brilliant in-swinging corner, to put the result almost certainly beyond Andover’s grasp.

Town struggled to make any attacking chances and three minutes later Farnborough added a fourth through John Oyenuga.

Cureton’s shot was well saved by Atkinson, only for Oyenuga to hit the rebound firmly into the bottom corner to make it 4-0.

Farnborough completed the rout soon after, when Jamie Cureton was set free in space with a well-hit pass.

His cross off the left wing was well collected by Habib Cissoko, who fired his shot into the bottom corner to round off the scoring.

The result means Andover are now out of the FA Cup, but will no doubt be pleased with their progress in the competition this year.

It is the first time in the club’s history that they have reached the first qualifying round.

Andover reached the ‘third stage’ of the competition by beating Wiltshire side Royal Wootten Bassett 5-2 in the extra preliminary round at the start of August.

They beat Surrey-based side Spelthorne Sports 3-2 in the following preliminary round to land the home tie with Farnborough.

Andover return to league action against Blackfield and Langley on Saturday