Make no mistake Chorley had a chance to make round two, but that was on 11 November and they failed to take it.
I did the match report then and feeling I had unfinished business, begged to do this. No talk of banana skins, or David versus Goliath cliches this time, mainly because David had forgotten his sling.
The game itself was a classic one of two halves. Alfie May scored his and Rovers first after seven minutes, but it could have easily been our third. And where recently chances have gone begging, the vast majority of tonight’s found the net in a long easy procession ending with a first professional hat-trick for May (Rovers first FA Cup hat-trick since 1999). 5-0 at half-time; May (3), Herbie Kane and Matty Blair.
Dreams of a record score fizzled out when Grant McCann made changes with Barnsley in mind, and the second half became a shadow of the first. Though it still had some entertainment as Tom Anderson picked up a second yellow for a bog-standard foul miles from goal – whilst Chorley’s ‘keeper escaped further punishment when cleaning out John Marquis for a penalty he then had the nerve to save.
May’s fourth goal on 81 minutes made him only the second Rovers player, following Glenn Kirkwood, to score four in an FA Cup tie and when Marquis bagged the goal of the game five minutes from time, it equalled our highest FA Cup score of 7-0. Business totally finished.
by John Turner
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