Jewson Wessex new boys Alton Town piled on the misery for fading title challengers AFC Newbury at Faraday Road last night.

Fresh from Saturday's 15-2 Hampshire Senior Cup battering of Brading, Dave Hawtin's men inflicted a 2-1 home defeat on Andy Lyne's stuttering Berkshire side.

Having fancied themselves as serious championship challengers, Newbury have veered alarmingly off-course with five straight defeats - four of them in the league.

They took a sixth-minute lead through Yashwa Romeo last night, but were pegged back by Alton's two-goal hero John Edwards in the 25th and 36th minutes.

It was all too much for Newbury secretary Mike Hall, who groaned: "The second half was one of the worst halves of football I've seen in my life."

A waterlogged pitch forced Brockenhurst to rearrange their JWL Cup second leg tie with BAT for next Tuesday, but Portland, Wimborne and Thatcham already safely through to round two.

Thatcham needed only a single Sean Cook strike to dispose of Whitchurch 3-0 on aggregate, but there were goals galore elsewhere.

Blackfield & Langley beat Portland 4-3 at Gang Warily through Lee Hayes, Jimmy Hooper, Danny Mockridge and Simon Davison, but it was not enough to repair the 3-0 away leg damage.

With the exception of Davison's 'winner', all the goals arrived in a first-half flurry with Chris Naylor, Adam Skelton and James Reeve on target for Portland.

Wimborne had defender Paul Roast sent off for two bookable offences in a 5-3 win at Hamble ASSC.

By then the Magpies were 4-0 up through Aaron Turner (2), Guy Dipper and Stuart Cannie, having already won the home leg 3-1.

Cannie struck again to make it 5-0 on the night before the Planemakers staged a late comeback through Jamie Hill (2) and Robert Cox. They went out 8-4 on aggregate.