Craig Denton's delight as Worksop Town march on in FA Vase

A Matt Sykes volley and calm close range finish from Steve Woolley won the day for the Tigers despite late pressure from their NCEL Division One opponents.

The tie was always going to be tricky with Grimsby excelling in the league below, making an unbeaten start to the season before Saturday’s tie.

Denton said: “I spoke to Rob (Poulter, assitant) on Thursday and we decided to go with the same side that finished on Sunday. We need to stand by players who come in and take their chance that’s why we’ve got a strong squad.

“We started like a house on fire today but we should have upped the tempo then and it should have been dead and buried before half time. We got a bit sloppy in the second half but I’m happy to have got through.”

The first round qualifying win means Worksop will play another three cup ties before they get back to NCEL Premier Division action on 22nd September.

Tigers have been drawn to play Winsford United away in the second round qualifying on 15th September.

“At the end of the day my focus is the league but we know that financially these games are really important,” said Denton.

“We want to win every game though and that’s the task in hand, whether it’s in the league or cup, we want to win and keep standards high. There wasn’t much in the game today, I wanted to see a bigger difference in the leagues but a win’s a win and that’s all we focus on.”

Denton will now prepare his side for the FA Cup first round qualifying tie at Nantwich Town on 8th September. Assistant Poulter had already said last week the pressure was on their Evo-Stik opponents.

And the Worksop manager is relishing the test.

“We’re looking forward to it,” he said.

“I’ve made it clear to the players that we want to progress, we can go there and win, performances need to be better though if we play like we have today we won’t beat Nantwich but we’ll work on that in midweek.

“The lads are buzzing for it, to go up there and play on a good surface and test themselves against Evo-Stik Premier opposition.”

WORKSOP: Reay, Wilson, Royles, Woolley, Reay, Pemberton, Patterson, Goodwin (Price), Simpson (Mitchell), Jordan (Poole), Sykes. Subs not used: Brunt, Trench.

Attendance: 374.