The Keys progressed into the second round of the Challenge Cup thanks to their first-half performance when almost complete domination earned them a four-nil lead. There was no sign of things to come when, in the first minute, a Brumby shot bounced off the Keys’ crossbar. Sam Shipman’s long throws have been causing problems for defences for years, and Brumby became the latest team to suffer after he launched one from the left into a crowded box where Jacob Hibbard was in position to poke his second goal of the season.

It wasn’t long before fellow defender Bryn Gosling doubled the advantage, he also had cause to thank Sam Shipman who found him with a short pass after Brumby goalkeeper Will Mitchell failed to hold on to a Shay Barron free-kick from the halfway lines in the eighteenth minute. Mitchell redeemed his reputation with a fantastic save shortly afterwards, palming Callum Mold’s close-range volley around the post as the Keys were looking to put the game beyond their opponents by the half-time break.

Two goals in two minutes midway through the half, a tap-in for Barron, created by Mold, followed by a flick from Kieran Howitt after an Aidan Wilkinson free-kick, advanced the score to four-nil and there was still time for Barron to have a goal disallowed for offside, and Hibbard to be astonished that he wasn’t awarded a penalty when he was pulled to the ground.

Brumby came out strongly for the second half, but while they had the greater number of chances, Crowle was the side which came closer to scoring when Jamie Goodhand rattled a shot against the Boys’ crossbar just after the hour. The home team’s pressure eventually found a way through the Keys’ defence when, with calls of ‘Offside!’ ringing in his ears, Rossi Francis-Webster prodded the ball past Wilkinson. An unlikely comeback grew in possibility in the seventy-ninth minute with another goal for Brumby; moments after Oliver Shipman’s claims for a penalty fell on stony ears, Eddie Cross barged into Francis-Webster at the other end of the field, giving Brumby a penalty, duly converted into a goal by Carlo Midwinter.

The Boys were two goals behind, but one man in front for ten minutes following a sin-binning for Crowle substitute Danny Smyth who, indignant that his saved shot resulted in a goal-kick not a corner, overstated his dissatisfaction with the decision. Back on the field in the eighty-ninth minute, he received a through-ball from Goodhand, took it into the Brumby box and rolled a shot past Mitchell to secure the Keys’ biggest Challenge Cup victory since beating AFCB five-nil in 2018, a game from which Smyth was the only player in the Keys team to have played today.