After a goalless first half, Shelley were reduced to 10 men five minutes after the restart when defender Daniel Lockwood was shown a red card for a late challenge on Daisy’s Harvey Roberts.
But it took until the last 20 minutes before Daisy pressed home their numerical advantage, with Ryan Talbot opening the scoring on 71 minutes, before Jake O’Brien converted a penalty and Jamie Ramwell wrapped up a good night’s work with a third goal a minute from time.
Daisy manager Lee Hill said afterwards that his side’s second-half display was the most pleasing feature of the game.
“I felt in the first half we started really slowly, and sometimes you get that in night games after a long journey, but we weren’t competing like we normally do,” said Hill.
“But we had a word at half time and changed the mentality of the lads a bit, asking them how much they wanted it, and although the first half wasn’t good enough, the second half was much better. Once we started putting passes together, we started creating better chances.
“In the last three games we have created a lot of chances, but only scored one goal in each one, so that was a big thing coming into this game.
“We knew they (Shelley) had conceded a few goals previously, and knew we had an opportunity to take advantage of that. There were a number of opportunities we didn’t take, but the ones we did were good goals.
“When you have Ryan Talbot and Jamie Ramwell up front, you will always have a chance.”
Both sides showed plenty of endeavour and had a fairly equal share of possession in the first half, although clear chances were few and far between.
Shelley’s first chance arrived on 23 minutes, but Hayden Webster’s shot from 10 yards just missed the near post.
Daisy’s first chance of note came just after the half-hour mark, when good work by Ramwell down the left set up a chance for Karl Farrell, but his shot on the turn from the edge of the box went wide.
After the break, Daisy began well and Talbot had two chances in the opening two minutes, first a header from a Ramwell cross that was deflected for a corner, and then a snap-shot finishing off a good move that was saved by Shelley keeper Paul Day.
Five minutes in, Shelley were reduced to 10 men when full-back Lockwood was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Daisy debutant Roberts, who was replaced soon afterwards by Sam Glendon.
But Daisy finally broke the deadlock with 19 minutes remaining. A neat move built up from halfway involving several players led to the ball being played through to Talbot, who took a touch and slid the ball under the keeper into the net.
Eight minutes later, Daisy were awarded a penalty when Ramwell was sent tumbling in the box. Regular penalty taker Jake O’Brien had joined the action as a substitute a few minutes earlier, and he successfully converted the spot-kick to double the lead.
With a minute remaining, another sweeping move set up Daisy’s third goal of the night, with Henry Chalkley sending the ball wide to Talbot on the left, and he squared into the box for Ramwell to slot home from close range.
Daisy’s next game is on Saturday when they host league new boys Route One Rovers at New Sirs, in the North west Counties League First Division North (3pm).