Droitwich Spa were well beaten by a slick and impressive Studley at Abbeyfields on Tuesday night, to be eliminated from the League Cup at the 2nd Round stage.

The hosts controlled the majority of the proceedings, with chances for Spa at a premium throughout.

Studley took the lead after 12 minutes when Dale Edwards took advantage of plenty of space to strike a sublime finish from 25 yards into the bottom corner of Dom Rogerson's goal.

Droitwich's offside trap was working well, but when the Bees did get through, they found Rogerson in fine form, as he denied Chris Withington, Ross Evans and Jamie Spiers.
The latter should have doubled Studley's lead, but with the goal gaping he placed his shot wide. Rogerson then pulled off an excellent save to deny Evans, when through one-on-one.

Spa enjoyed a good 15-minute spell with several corner's and half chances, the best opportunity falling to Jack Davies who forced a save out of stopper Brendan Bunn.

The Bees had signed several players from Vanarama National League side Solihull Moors prior to the game, with several of the new additions making their debuts. One of the new faces got Studley back on the front foot & doubled their lead on 35 minutes, as some slack defending from the visitors allowed Jamie Spiers in to pick his spot, this time Rogerson helpless to save the effort.

The second half picked up from where the first half left off, and Rogerson was on hand to save Spa on numerous occasions with some fantastic stops at close range. Loveridge, Spiers, Withington and Evans all saw efforts brilliantly saved.

At the other end, as the game wore on and Droitwich changed their shape, they were able to create some more opportunities, however Bunn was only seriously called in to action to save two chipped efforts from range courtesy of Connor Collins.
The attacking changes inevitably allowed more space to exploit at the back, and Droitwich had Rogerson to thank on three more occasions in the closing stages for his efforts in denying the Bees adding to the score-line, which they probably deserved on the balance of play against a rotated and off-color Droitwich side, who bow out of the League Cup after the defeat.

The end of the match was delayed due to floodlight failure for around 5 minutes.

The tough fixtures keep coming for Andy Crowther's men, and on Saturday Spa make a trip to Leicestershire to face fellow play-off hopefuls Hinckley AFC (ko 3pm), the two sides having identical records before the meeting.
Unfortunately, the Saltmen will be missing several first team regulars due to suspension.