SWINDON Supermarine boss Lee Spalding hailed “some of the best football of the season” from his side after they progressed into the Wiltshire Senior Cup semi-finals,following a 4-1 win over Melksham Town tonight.

An own goal opened Marine’s account for the night before further strikes from Michael Hopkins, Stuart Fleetwood and Conor McDonagh capped off an excellent win for the hosts.

Neikell Plumber had earlier driven home an equaliser for Melksham, but after a spirited first half, the lower-league outfit had no answer to Marine’s attacking class in the second period.

Spalding felt, after a testing first half, his side kicked on in the latter stages and fully deserved to go through.

He said: “It was a good result, a good performance and I’m delighted with the way the players went about it.

“It was important we turned up and went about things properly and I thought the players did that.

“Some of the football we played was up there with the best we’ve played this season and we scored some really good goals.

“We’ve got the quality in the team to open teams up and we proved that in the second half.”

Marine made the perfect start to proceedings after trickery from Brad Hooper set up Hopkins on the left. The wing-back fired across goal and a cruel looping deflection saw the hosts take the lead with just four minutes on the clock.

However, not long after the home side’s celebrations had subsided, Melksham were level. A lobbed through ball was latched onto by Plumber, who clinically drove past the despairing Will Henry to restore parity.

Melksham continued to spring counter-attacks on a lacklustre Marine, but the home side held firm until a delightful team goal saw them enter half-time in front.

Connor Thompson made progress down the right before the ball found its way to Hopkins on the opposite wing. Hopkins’ first-time shot lasered into the bottom corner and this time there was no argument over the scorer.

Midway through the second half, Marine grabbed their third. Fleetwood escaped from a tight situation before unleashing a shot goalwards that found the top corner via a slight deflection that wrong-footed Melksham keeper Alex Shaftoe.

McDonagh added a fourth for Marine with a superb long-range drive as the home side coasted into the semi-finals.

Elsewhere, Malmesbury Victoria earned progress in the Hellenic League Floodlit Cup at the expense of Fairford Town after a 2-0 win at home.

Jack Ellis and Jamie Packer were on target for the Vics at the Flying Monk Ground.

Royal Wootton Bassett Town’s ambitions in the competition came to an end after they were beaten 4-0 at Windsor.