EARLSWOOD Town suffered a heavy 6-0 defeat away at Pershore Town Development to exit the Smedley Crooke Memorial Charity Cup at the first hurdle.
Jamie Clarke’s first-half hat-trick and further goals from Jake Donnelly and Scott Hammond all but ended the game as a contest before the break at the Recruit 12 Community Stadium.
Hammond scored his second of the game late on to complete the scoring as Pershore fielded a number of first-team players from their Hellenic League Premier squad, two steps above the Earls.
Earlswood, playing in the competition for the first time in four years, handed a full debut to Ben Harvey while Alex Mee made his Earls bow from the bench.
However, it would prove to be a night to forget for the Earls as Donnelly’s powerful header opened the scoring for Pershore on five minutes.
And Clarke doubled the home side’s lead on 16 minutes before smashing home on 23 minutes and completing his first-half treble in the 34th minute.
Pershore scored a fifth goal before half time as Hammond thumped home from 12-yards out five minutes before the break.
The Earls proved more resilient in the second period as goalkeeper Ethan Pheasey made a number of fine saves to keep Pershore at bay while the returning Andy Matthews rattled the crossbar from 35-yards out.
However, Hammond completed the scoring for Pershore with four minutes left to play to compound a miserable night for the Earls.
Earlswood are next in action away at Inkberrow on Saturday, December 16 with kick-off at 2pm at Sands Road.
