Gosport & FAREHAM booked their place in Thursday's Intermediate Cup fifth round draw, but again progressed in unconvincing fashion, defeating Maidstone in a scrappy, untidy affair at Dolphin Crescent.

The home side had to dig deep to pull the win out of the bag but were not helped by the enforced changing of eight of the selected side of Wednesday evening, both in personnel and in position.

And any psychological advantage gained ahead of next week's league meeting between the pair is likely to be minimal, given that both sides were less than full strength for the game.

According to their captain Simon Burns, Gosport will probably travel to Kent without key players again, with full-back David Goddard absent through injury and flanker Paul Flower going off midway through the first half with a dislocated finger, joined later by Dave Higgins with a collar bone injury.

The match itself was intriguing for its closeness throughout.

Sean Fanning was released to scoot under the posts after just two minutes but Maidstone fly-half David Charlton reduced the arrears with a penalty before gaining the lead for his side with a chip and chase.

Gosport centre Richard Lloyd and Charlton exchanged further penalties before the Maidstone man sent his side into the break four points clear with another three-pointer, a lead he stretched after the interval with one more.

Club coach Mark Wells, who was called upon as a replacement for Flower, dived over after a quickly taken tap penalty moved the hosts within five metres to level the scores.

The game then produced some niggle between the sides, allowing a series of penalties which Lloyd gratefully accepted on three occasions to open a nine-point lead going into injury time.

But Maidstone were not done, collecting a run-away try through centre Jon Sheridan but it was the final action of the match; Gosport coming home 26-24.

Despite the win, the feeling in the clubhouse afterwards matched the words of captain Simon Burns. "We had a couple of injuries to contend with to the point that Mark Wells phoned me on Friday night to see what I thought about selection.

"The players that were picked did the job and we started off well but, whether the players thought it would be easy, we dropped away and they led 17-10 at one stage.

"But we just ground the win out. The lads here will never give up and we cannot grumble about winning.

"We have players to come back next week for the league game, but I am happy that we have won. You could see that they were disappointed to lose the game when they came off the park.

"Hopefully that will benefit us next week."