Oxhey Jets again showed their growing maturity to impressively overcome a potential banana skin with a 4-1 victory at Belstone in the second round of the Herts Senior Centenary Trophy.

The unbeaten Herts Senior County League leaders have been in superb form this season, winning 12 of their first 13 league games, but Jets were positive from the outset and were to go on and comfortably avoid being on the receiving end of an upset.

The visitors made the breakthrough in the 17th minute when new signing James Barnett scored from a tight angle. Archie James followed in to make sure the ball crossed the line but sportingly admitted it was not his goal.

Jets continued to control possession but Belstone went very close to equalising, only to be denied by an excellent goalline clearance.

The away side capitalised on that escape after 35 minutes when Dylan Hickman-Singh doubled his side’s advantage with a powerful strike.

The Combined Counties League outfit knew they could not afford to take their foot off the pedal against good opposition and all but made the tie safe three minutes after the restart when a good pass from Barnett set up James to score.

The tie lost some of its impetus but Jets were to net their fourth goal in the closing stages when Sam Hamerton calmly slotted home.

James Kimber had kept the dangerous Chris Blunden quiet for most of the game, but the Belstone striker was to get on the scoresheet before the end of the game with a fine free-kick to net a consolation.