Bristol City 5 Gloucester City 1

A strong Bristol City side retained the Gloucestershire Senior Challenge Cup with victory over a battling Gloucester City side at Ashton Gate.

City started strongly, with skipper Scott Murray showing up well, and they went ahead in the 16th minute.

The Gloucester defence was opened up by some neat approach play which released Peter Styvar, who crashed a shot into the top corner of the net from an acute angle that gave goalkeeper Kevin Sawyer no chance.

Gloucester hit back with Luke Ballinger beating his marker but shooting straight at City goalkeeper Stephen Henderson, and then Alex Sykes saw his 25-yard free-kick just clear the crossbar.

Henderson denied Gloucester an equaliser in the 24th minute, when he made a fine save from Sykes at the expense of a corner. From the set-piece, Jack Harris' header was easily saved by the Irishman.

City made it 2-0 in the 26th minute when James Wilson set up Styvar, who rounded Sawyer to claim his second, and the Robins then punished a mix-up in the Gloucester defence to make it 3-0 after 37 minutes, Murray capitalising on Matt Rose's slip to set up John Akinde.

The skipper added City's fourth three minutes into the second half, when his low drive went into the corner of the net.

They added a fifth after 65 minutes when Frankie Artus released Akinde, who was brought down from behind by Marc Richards. Akinde recovered to score from the resulting spot-kick.

Gloucester netted a consolation goal in the 71st minute when former City youngster Dean Grubb crossed from the right for Ballinger to score with a well-taken header at the far post.