WORCESTERSHIRE progressed to the third round of the FA County Youth Challenge Cup following a deserved 3-2 away win over Somerset at Welton Rovers.

The visitors opened at a high tempo and their swift pass and move football saw Somerset forced back into their own half.

Josh Grubb and Craig Shaw both fired shots over the crossbar and Scott Finnegan saw his shot well held by goalkeeper Gary Stevens inside the first ten minutes.

It was no more than Worcestershire deserved when they took the lead in the 21st minute, a surging run from Chris Thurbon put David Powell through and he made no mistake with his shot from 12 yards found the net.

Against the run of play Somerset netted a shock equaliser from their first meaningful attack in the 34th minute. A slip by skipper Matthew Peck let in Josh Harrington who made no mistake.

With Worcestershire first to every ball, they continued to dominate and Edward Flory came close to restoring their lead in the 42nd minute.

The opening minutes of the second-half followed a similar pattern to the first and it took just four minutes for Worcestershire to take a 2-1 lead when Thurbon forced the ball into the net from close range following a corner.

Somerset began to put some attacks together as Worcester-shire's play became scrappy and Nick Bull twice came close to levelling the scores with headers from free-kicks.

The earlier fluency was now lacking from Worcestershire's play, but they appeared to have settled the result in the 86th minute when David Powell scored his second goal to make the score 3-1.

Powell saw his first shot smothered by the goalkeeper but followed up to put the rebound away.

However, two minutes later Somerset reduced the deficit when Dan Fowler saw his fierce shot deflected past Shepherd to set up a tense few minutes to the final whistle.

But Worcestershire hung on and now face a formidable task in round three when they entertain the powerful North-umberland FA who defeated Staffordshire FA 4-1 in round two.

Worcestershire will be aiming for their second victory in the Midland Under 18s Football Championships on Sunday.

The county youngsters travel to Leicestershire and Rut-land in section A' looking to build on their 2-0 home success against Derbyshire last month.

The match kicks off at 2pm.