PAUL Arnold heaped praise on his young replacements as his Wimborne side earned a place in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup.

Goals in each half from electric frontman Stuart Cooper and the impressive Paul Roast eased Magpies past Western League outfit Chard Town and bagged Wimborne a trip to Cirencester Town.

With the Magpies squad already shorn of the unavailable Sammy Percival and injured Marcus Oldbury, Arnold then lost Ollie Phillipson-Masters to a calf injury in the pre-match warm-up.

Teenagers Damon Cousins and Warren Doyle stepped in and turned in whole-hearted displays, while Paul Rideout played through a stomach bug and Scott Arnold got through 90 minutes though not fully match-fit.

Arnold said: "I was really proud of us as we were up against it. We were a patched-up side and the young lads who came in did really well. We had Sammy, Marcus and Ollie out and had players playing in different positions and the lads who came in did their jobs well.

"It shows the character and the spirit in the side at the moment. Defensively we did fantastically and that's another clean sheet."

Despite the West Country side matching Magpies for much of the tie, as they had in the goalless stalemate in Somerset on Saturday, the home side's extra quality ultimately proved decisive.

In particular, they struggled to deal with the pace of Rideout and Cooper and the all-action approach of Stuart Cannie.

Arnold said: "The front two's movement was tremendous and we had the bit of quality that told in the end."

Kick-off was held up half-an-hour as referee Paul Humphrey battled with the Dorset Steam Fair traffic and once proceedings began, both sides opened more like express trains.

A frenetic opening period saw Adam Watson just fail to hook home a knock-down for the visitors while Cooper saw his thumping effort turned on to the post by Chard player-manager Stuart Parris.

As the game settled, it was Magpies who began to dominate and it was from a decent spell of possession that they fashioned the opening goal.

Cousins slipped the ball to Cannie 25 yards out and he beautifully slipped his marker and fired the ball viciously across the six-yard box for Cooper to gleefully ram home at the far post.

The rapier-like counter-attacks of the hosts were a constant threat and Arnold came close to making it two with a flashing header from a corner 10 minutes before the break.

The turnaround did little to stem the tide and it took just 12 minutes for Magpies to double their advantage.

A quick corner caught the Robins napping and Alex Jones's low driven cross was tracked all the way by Roast who slid in at the back post to make it two.

It could have easily been three soon after when first Doyle mis-kicked with the goal at his mercy six yards out and then Parris did well to palm away Jones's low drive.

As Chard began to run out of ideas, both Cannie and substitute Jason Lovell also went close but the hosts comfortably sealed their passage to the next round.

Arnold added: "It is nice to get this far as we haven't done too well in the FA Cup in recent years. I'm pleased for everyone at the club."

Magpies: Kearn, Rideout, Jones, Crutcher, Roast, Cousins, Moore, Arnold, Cooper, Cannie, Doyle (Lovell 74). Unused subs: Butler, Clements, Phillipson-Masters, Walker.