HOLYHEAD Hotspur manager Darren Garmey reached the FAW Trophy’s last eight thanks to a thrilling 5-4 victory at Llanrwst United.

The Holy Islanders’ got an early breakthrough when Dewi Thomas opened the scoring after good work from Asa Thomas.

This was met by a swift response from the hosts, who levelled matters on the quarter hour mark through Tom Jones, only for experienced forward Chris Jones to put Spurs’ back in front with 34 on the clock.

After the break saw United restore parity to the score-line once again when Leon Doran hit the target on 65 minutes, but their joy proved to be short-lived as a Jones thunderbolt found its way into the top corner on 68 to give the away side a slender lead for the third time.

Once again the home side fought their way back into the tie when Doran finished well on 75 minutes for his second of the afternoon to leave things all to play for heading into the closing stages.

Garmey’s side seized the initiative for a fourth time on 80 minutes thanks to a rousing effort from Deian Parry, and Jones capped off a clinical individual display with his hat-trick to double their advantage with two remaining.

The hosts did find the net once more through Elliot Llewelyn in stoppage time, but they left themselves with little time to salvage anything from the game and condemn them to a knockout exit.

The Spurs’ boss, said: “Glad to come through another tough away game. We had a point to prove to ourselves after the heavy league defeat in November.

“The score line would suggest it was a hectic game and it was that, and more. If I can begin to try and get my head around what happened I would say we controlled most of the game, created plenty of chances but they were very effective on the counter-attack and punished us.

“There was a point where we had to accept the game was going to be end to end and that we had to do whatever we could to progress.

“The character shown was first class again and we are delighted to be going to Welshpool in the last eight.”