Stratford Town 1-5 Shrewsbury Town: Ryan Bowman double helps Shrews avoid cup shock

League One side Shrewsbury survived a scare as they came back to beat seventh-tier Stratford Town in the FA Cup first round.

Will Grocott's low shot squirmed under stand-in goalkeeper Harry Burgoyne to give the Southern League Premier side a dream start on their first round debut.

But Ryan Bowman converted Nathaneal Ogbeta crosses twice for the Shrews.

Luke Leahy's dipping 30-yard effort, Elliott Bennett's free-kick and Tom Bloxham's late strike sealed the win.

• Relive Sunday's FA Cup action

The Shrews, who sit 21st in League One, faced the lowest-ranked side left in the competition, with 82 places and four tiers between the sides, and duly reached the second round for the eighth successive season.

However, they had to overcome a late blow in the build-up to the game when goalkeeper Marko Marosi and centre-half Matthew Pennington withdrew from the squad after testing positive for Covid-19.

Bards skipper Grocott quickly turned up the volume among the sell-out 2,800 crowd with his early strike, but the Shrews gradually turned up the heat, Ogbeta's whipped cross across the six-yard box allowing Bowman to nod into an empty net.

Lewis Wilson's goalmouth block on Daniel Udoh's low shot ensured the hosts went in level at half-time, but Bowman stretched to convert another teasing Ogbeta cross soon after the break, and Leahy quickly added a superb third.

Bennett arrowed a free-kick from the left-hand edge of the box into the top corner to put the tie to bed, and in stoppage-time, Bloxham capped a first away win of the season with a low finish into the bottom corner.

Stratford Town boss Paul Davis told BBC Coventry and Warwickshire:

"To score early it was great, it's why people are here, but we just had a mad eight minutes in the second half which has let us down.

"It was a great start and it was brilliant to see everyone jumping around and the elation of it. It was something we worked on in training.

"It's a great day. The television were here because they wanted a proper cup tie and I think we gave them a proper cup tie.

"Hopefully we've given everyone a good account of what we can do and everyone's had a good day."

Shrewsbury Town manager Steve Cotterill told BBC Radio Shropshire:

"I'm happier now than I was after the first 10 minutes. We gave away a silly free-kick and gave them a leg-up.

"We were allowed to regroup a little bit at half-time and talk about what we'd seen in the first half to try and exploit in the second half and thankfully we did that.

"It has been a bit of a difficult build-up for us, but thankfully everything has come out for the good at the end of it. For Marco and Matty our best wishes have gone to them every day and hopefully they will be ok soon.

"It's their (Stratford's) day. We don't really get any credit for winning these games. We know all of the pitfalls but it was a good professional performance by our lads."