FA CUP: 1st Qualifying round

Metropolitan Police 2, Winchester City 3

WINCHESTER City's romance with the FA Cup continued as they survived a late onslaught to squeeze past their Ryman League opponents last Saturday.

City reaped a £3,000 financial reward as they claimed their second FA Cup scalp of the season and stand just three games from the First round proper.

They now face a tough task in the next round next Saturday (27th) when they must travel again - this time to Wiltshire to meet Chippenham Town, who play in the Premier Division of the Dr Martens League.

It's City's third game on the road in the competition and manager Neil Hards commented: "We feel we've earned a home tie for a change, but we just have to get on with it!

"If we play as well as we did against the Police for 80 minutes we'll be OK."

At Imber Court, City's slick passing game dominated the policemen throughout. But it could have been a different story if keeper Darren Crowfoot had not pulled off a superb double save in the first minute.

First, he palmed away striker Symon James' low shot before reacting instinctively to the rebound to block Scott Bennett's goalbound effort.

Following this early lapse, the visitors began to get into their stride and play some neat, crisp football on an immaculate looking pitch.

On eight minutes, the hard working Lloyd Webber saw his 25-yard effort acrobatically tipped over and then Mark Blake's long diagonal pass found the predatory Andy Forbes in the box only for his angled shot to come back off the post.

Two minutes later, City's perseverance finally paid off when an unlikely scorer prodded home from close range. Michael Dean's centre was hooked into the box by Webber and wing back Shaun Dyke reacted quickest to score.

With City keeping the home side to audacious long-range efforts, Forbes showed them how it was done when he added a second in stoppage time with a bullet header from Matt Bicknell's cross.

The impressive Bicknell gave City more breathing space ten minutes after the interval when he latched onto Dean's precise pass to calmly slot home the third from six yards.

Despite being three goals down, the Police began to play their best football and threw themselves a lifeline on 76 minutes when they pulled back what seemed like a consolation goal.

Following a foul by Blake, Steve Flinn's inswinging free kick found captain Ian Batten at the far post and he made no mistake from two yards out. It got tenser for City when the Police grabbed a second in the 89th minute as the nippy James turned in the box to fire past Crowfoot.

The home side threw men forward in search of an equaliser, but the City rearguard held firm to see them safely through.

Team: Crowfoot, Dyke, Bicknell, D Smith, Goss, Blake, Webber (L Green 90), G Green, Knott (Lilley 88), Forbes, Dean. Unused subs: Brewster, Batchelor, Rastall.

City have no senior match this weekend, but are at home to BAT Sports in a Sydenhams Wessex League game on Tuesday night (7.45 pm).