Two first-half Croydon Athletic goals were enough to send Corinthian Casuals crashing out of the League Cup at the first hurdle.

Goals from Charlie Sharmen and Gary Noel were too much for Casuals to peg back as the visitors struggled to create enough openings throughout the match to ever threaten the hosts.

On 17 minutes, a defence splitting ball was played between both Casuals' centre-half's and found Sharmen who was only able to get to the ball because he was aided by a Matt Mann stumble in the Casuals' goal. The striker beat the keeper to the ball and was left with the simple task of stroking the ball into the net to give Croydon the lead.

That lead was doubled a minute before the break when Noel's effort found the bottom right hand corner of the visitors net.

Casuals tried to rally after the break and almost pulled one goal back. On 60 minutes, a Kane Sergeant free kick from the right of the host's penalty box, was dangerously swung in by the winger with Gavin Cartwright almost connecting but the centre back failed to get enough on the ball to send it home.

A string of smart saves by Mann kept Casuals in contention as well as the outside of the post, but on 81 minutes, Scott Corbett really should have pulled one back for the visitors when substitute Nicky Ogbanufe crossed from the right and found Corbett at the far post- but his attempted volley was miss-timed.

CASUALS: Matt Mann, Jason Turley, Dale Hennessey, Yousef Metwail, Gavin Cartwright, Joe McNemery, Jamal Carr (Luke Gay), Scott Corbett, Ali Wiltshire, Kane Sergeant (Nicky Ogbanufe)Tyrone Myton SUBS NOT USED: Murray-Price, Naughton, Sankoh.