Substitute Greg Draper led the way with a brace as the Saints made light work of Bryntirion to breeze into the last 16 of the Welsh Cup.

Bryntirion, the current champions of the South Wales League, offered scant resistance as their defence creaked in a torrid afternoon at Park Hall.
TNS head coach Carl Darlington, at the helm for the time being along with player coach Scott Ruscoe following the departure of boss Mike Davies, hailed a job well done.

“Bryntirion won their league last season and we were mindful of their threat,” he said.

“But we made sure we were right mentally and hit the ground running. We dominated the ball, and even when they had possession, they found it hard to do anything with it.”

There was little doubt about the outcome once Alex Darlington had given the Saints a third minute lead when converting a Matty Williams cross after Tom Roberts had intercepted a Bryn clearance.

Darlington hit the post with another effort before Williams added the second on 16 minutes from Chris Seargeant’s long ball forward.

Visiting keeper Peter Blain deflected a Chris Williams drive on to the bar before the excellent Spender provided a lob over the defence for sub Draper, on for the injured Williams, to chip the third on 39 minutes.

Seargeant’s free-kick from the left was then met with a glancing header from Phil Baker into the far corner to put the game out of reach before half-time.

Barry Hogan carved the opening for Draper to add his second 11 minutes after the break before Spender gained some reward with his first goal for TNS, dispossessing Blain before steering the ball into an empty net.

Draper was only denied a hat-trick by some great saves after fellow substitute Craig Jones heaped further pressure on the Bryn defence.

The visitors did find the net, only for an assistant’s offside flag to deny them a consolation goal.