Basingstoke Town were surprisingly dumped out of the Hampshire Senior Cup last night, losing 4-3 on penalties at Wessex outfit Lymington & New Milton, having drawn 3-3 after extra time.
Linnets keeper Alan Walker-Harris was the hero, saving one Craig McAllister spot-kick in normal time and again denying the Southampton-based marksman in the shoot-out having scored himself to put the Foresters 4-3 up.
His heroics came amid boos from unhappy Stoke fans, who felt he should have been sent off for the foul on striker Neville Roach which led to McAllister's first penalty miss.
Ironically McAllister had opened the scoring from the spot after ten minutes and he struck again with a curling effort to put the Ryman Leaguers two up at half-time.
John Dyer's foul on John Mulhern allowed Ben Thomson to hit back with yet another penalty, but Stoke soon made it 3-1 through Ricky Allaway.
New signing Paul Towler prodded home on his debut to give the Linnets hope and they equalised with an exquisite strike by Thomson.
With no further score in extra-time, Towler, Darren Curtis, Paddy James and Walker-Harris were Linnets' shoot-out stars.
Ian Dickens, Toby Sumner and Roach scored for Basingstoke, but Nathan Stamp hit the bar before McAllister was foiled once more.
Linnets' assistant manager Richie Phippard said: "A lot of teams would have thrown the towel in going 3-1 down to higher league opposition, but our boys showed tremendous spirit.
"After the troubles Lymington had last season, the club deserve a chance of glory.
"I just hope we get a reasonable draw."
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