Newark Town manager Luke Parsons praises goalscorer Luke Andersen after FA Vase second-round win over Lichfield City

Manager Luke Parsons compared Luke Andersen to a slice of toast after Newark Town continued their FA Vase journey.

Andersen, October’s player-of-the-month, staked an early claim for the November prize with his performance in the Blues’ second-round win over Lichfield City on Saturday.

Another fine display included the opening goal, a header from a corner, to set Town on their way.

Lichfield levelled in the second half but the hosts advanced 4-3 on penalties, with Andrew Tsolakis scoring the decisive kick.

“I don’t think I’ve played with, or managed, a more consistent player than Ando,” said Parsons.

“He’s just so consistent. You know what you’re going to get with him.

“He’s a bit like toast, you just know what you’re going to get when you have toast, the same thing every single time. That’s the best way I can describe him.

“He’s just brilliant. He loves the club, he’s a great personality and he’s so consistent.

“The fans love him, the players love him, I’ve never heard anyone at the club say a bad word about him. We’re lucky to have him.”

The stage was set for a cracking tie with Newark third in United Counties League Premier Division North and Lichfield top of the Midland League Premier Division.

Newark got on top before City fought back to force penalties.

“First half, we were absolutely brilliant,” said Parsons. “We went in 1-0 up and they came into it a bit more in the second half.

“It was a bit of a tactical battle, with quite a few formation changes between both sides.

“They ended up getting back into it and causing us all sorts of trouble from crosses and long throws.

“We dealt with it in the end. Penalties are a lottery and the lottery went our way.”

A crowd of 329 surpassed expectations and, having enjoyed what they saw, Parsons is hoping even more turn out when Newark host Daventry in round three next month.

“We got above 300 and, fingers crossed, we can get to 400 now,” said Parsons.

“Everyone was complimenting us on how well we played and I’ve had a few messages since saying how good the set-up is and it’s probably the best team we’ve had in Newark for a while.

“People are going to start clocking on and hopefully, the bigger the game, the more people come down.

“It’s certainly my best team. We’ve got a very unique style of play and everybody buys into what we want to do, and we just make it so hard for the opposition.

“There were times when our right-back was in centre-mid, our centre-back was at right-back, our centre-mid was at centre-back, our left-winger was at centre-mid and the left-back was at right-back, because of the way we play.

“Their manager was complimentary, he said he’d never seen anything like how we play. It was good.

“They kept trying to tweak things to drag people out of position but the way we play, it doesn’t matter what formation people play, we know our roles and who individuals are marking.”