Avro assistant manager Phil Edghill is delighted with the ‘best possible start’ for his side, but has warned there a lot of hard work ahead if they want to be considered genuine promotion contenders.

After first ever wins at Northwich Victoria and Winsford United, Avro recorded their best ever FA Cup victory at Irlam on Saturday, with three first-half goals setting up a comfortable 4-0 success and a home tie against either Barnoldswick Town or Albion Sports in the next round on August 20.

“Three wins, eight goals scored, none conceded - it doesn’t get much better than that,” was Edghill’s reaction after Ethan Sutcliffe and Geffry Ebhote’s first goals for the club were doubled by a Joe Rathbone penalty and a deflected Jake Cottrell strike.

“I am delighted for the players; they have worked ever so hard in pre-season to get their fitness levels up to where we wanted them to be, and they are already seeing the benefits of what we have asked them to do.”

And the former Ramsbottom United midfielder admitted the excellent start to the campaign was already causing selection headaches.

He added: “We have got a great set of lads and even getting it down to a squad of 18 for each game is really tough, never mind who the starting XI is going to be. But it’s a nice problem to have.”

“Our back four and our keeper have been tremendous in this first week, and we know if we can keep it tight, we have players up front who are going to create chances and score goals.

“But we just have to keep reminding ourselves this is the only beginning, the standards need to remain this high week in, week out and the more successful we are, the more determined sides are going to be to turn us over.”

However, Edghill felt Avro were fortunate to go into the interval with a three-goal advantage.

“I wasn’t overly impressed with our first 45 minutes. I thought we lacked a bit of intensity and gave the ball away too easily. But we took our chances from two well-worked set-pieces and then the penalty really knocked the stuffing out of them.”