HAVING fallen foul of the weather on Saturday, Arundel beat Crowborough 4-0 in the rearranged fixture on Tuesday night in the FA Vase, setting up an away clash with South Western Peninsula League, Premier Division side Plymouth Parkway.
They marched into the third round in cold and slightly blustery conditions, which clearly made supporters think twice about turning up to watch, and this was probably a fair decision as it was far from a classic.
Mullets' manager Richard Towers sa
id: "It wasn't a great game, but in a cup competition it's the result that matters. We're through to the next round and that's all that matters."
Arundel took a fourth-minute lead when Howard Neighbour crossed dangerously, Crowborough's Rob Gordon and Sam Reid collided, leaving Arundel's top scorer, Scott Tipper to notch his ninth goal of the season.
The Crows almost came back into it just 10 minutes later when the ball ended up in the net but Reid was adjudged to have fouled Mullets' goalkeeper Ben O'Connor in the process.
After that, it was all Arundel, with Crowborough living up to their lowly league position and struggling to string a pass together, let alone a move of any substance.
The main Arundel threat was speedy right winger Russell Hardwell, who will be giving Crows' left back Wood nightmares as he constantly left him for dead, but Hardwell's finishing seemed to let him down on more than one occasion.
Hardwell did, however, provide the second as he squared for Neighbour to stab home his third goal since returning to Mill Road.
Tipper and Neighbour went on to miss seemingly gilt-edged chances to put the game beyond the hapless visitors before the end of the half.
So 2-0 at half time and a more worrying scoreline than manager Richard Towers would have liked, considering Arundel's absolute dominance of the first-half.
Worries were soon laid to rest when a carbon copy of the first goal saw Tipper slot home again after the keeper had parried yet another Hardwell strike on 47 minutes.
Memorable moments were at a premium after that, until the 89th minute, when substitute Lewis Hamilton appeared to have the freedom of the Crowborough box and eventually slid a pass through to Matt Axell, who buried his right-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner.
The only other incident of note was when Mullets' centre half Tom Pickford finally got mud on his shorts after 76 minutes, strangely symbolic of the game as a whole, where Arundel were rarely troubled by what can only be described as a poor Crowborough side.
The next round takes place on Saturday, December 5.
ARUNDEL: O'Connor; Sneller, Carragher, Pickford, Walker; Hardwell, Grove, Biggs, Axell; Tipper, Neighbour. Subs: Martin (Neighbour 49), Newman (Biggs 57), Hall, Wimbleton, Hamilton (Hardwell 72), Griffiths.
