TENBURY United booked their place in the last four of the Herefordshire Football League Senior Cup with a 2-0 win at Orleton Colts.

Goals from Mike Foster and Chris Patton guided them through to the semi-finals where they will meet the winners of the Hinton v Ewyas Harold tie which was postponed.

Tenbury started the stronger and took the lead after 15 minutes when some excellent work out wide from Ryan Morris ended with him cutting the ball back for Foster to slot home from close range.

The visitors created more good chances before the break but failed to make them count, Morris missing a number of opportunities to extend the lead.

And although Orleton upped their game after the break, some outstanding defending from Tenbury kept them at bay. And any hopes of a Colts fightback were ended with 20 minutes to go, Patton pouncing on a loose ball before firing home after Foster’s initial shot had been parried by the keeper.

“It was a very good performance considering we hadn’t played for seven weeks,” admitted Tenbury’s joint manager Nick Stocker.

“We created plenty of chances in the first half and were a little bit frustrated that we were only one goal ahead at the break because we thought they would come back at us in the second half.

“But we scored again and kept them out. Sam Williams was outstanding at the centre of defence and Ed Anton was quality in midfield – it was probably his best game but we’ve lost him now for the rest of the season because he has gone travelling in Australia.”

The Palmers Meadow side are back in Herefordshire League Premier Division action on Saturday when they play host to Westfields Reserves (ko 2pm) but for Stocker, the cups are just as important for the remainder of the campaign.

“We are four points behind Wellington Reserves but that could be seven points with their game in hand,” he added.

“We will keep the pressure on them but I can’t see them dropping that many points so we want to do as well as we can in the cups. We are through to two semi-finals now and still in a third one.”

One positive for Tenbury is that they will have striker and leading scorer Dale Withers available for the Westfields clash after he missed the Orleton cup tie.