Newcastle Blue Star 1 Alty 2

10:43am Tuesday 28th October 2008

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ALTY booked an FA Cup First Round trip to Luton Town after edging past Newcastle Blue Star on Sunday.

Colin Little’s 100th goal for the club and a Chris Lane header ensured a safe passage to the competition proper after an early scare saw Peter Snowdon put the hosts ahead.

But they will have to up their game when they travel to Kenilworth Road, as their performance was little more than the minimum required to progress.

Luton currently sit bottom of League Two but would be comfortably midtable were it not for a 30-point deduction imposed before the start of the current campaign due to financial problems.

A trip to the Bedfordshire club, who competed in England’s top division as recently as 1992, is just reward for Alty’s recent run though.

The victory at Kingston Park on Sunday was their seventh in 10 games, a run that has seen them resurrect their once lifeless season .

The Robins couldn’t have got off to a worse start against their Unibond League opponents, falling behind inside the first minute.

Lane conceded a corner from a Paul Brayson cross and from the set piece, Snowdon rose to power a header in off the bar.

It could have been an awful lot worse soon after but Brayson shot wide following a defensive mix-up between Lane and Mark McGregor.

David McTiernen also curled an effort narrowly over the bar before Alty managed to get themselves going.

Little shot tamely wide when a half-chance fell to him but he made amends to put the visitors level 29 minutes in.

Dale Johnson flicked Lane’s long pass into the box and Little stole in ahead of Blue Star keeper Dan Lowson to nod the ball into the corner of the net.

Blue Star player/manager Steve Bowey almost restored his side’s lead just two minutes later, shooting wide after taking a pass from Steve Salvin.

And he was left to rue that miss as Alty went ahead on the stroke of half time, Lane beating his marker to flick a Matt Doughty corner into the net.

The second half was largely uneventful, although Lowson almost committed a howler soon after the restart, enjoying a lucky escape after he had attempted to take the ball round Johnson.

The Alty targetman was also close to scoring when he just failed to connect with a Little flick from Shaun Densmore’s cross.

But Coburn had to be called on to protect the Robins’ route to the First Round.

He made a good save to deny Snowdon a second goal, reacted well to stop a Stuart Nicholson shot and then held an effort from Brayson in injury time.