AFC TOTTON’S hopes of hosting former Football League club Hereford United in the FA Trophy first qualifying round are still alive and kicking after Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Cinderford Town.

And the good news for manager Steve Riley is that his team have plenty of scope for improvement in tomorrow night’s (7.45pm) Testwood Stadium replay.

For the second time this season, Riley felt his side did not perform to their full potential at Cinderford’s Causeway Ground.

But at least Saturday’s scoreline was a vast improvement on last month’s 4-0 league thrashing in Gloucestershire when Totton had goalkeeper Steve Mowthorpe sent off.

The Stags didn’t finish with a full complement of players this time either. But, by the time young Ellis White had got his marching orders late on for a second bookable offence, substitute Nathan Hurst had already pulled the visitors level.

Cinderford had taken the lead when ex-Saints youngster Garyn Preen’s cross was turned in by Ethan Moore in the 22nd minute.

Totton’s woodwork then took a battering and Mowthorpe made a smart tip-over on his return from suspension as the home side piled on the pressure. But the Stags rode their luck and managed to force a replay when Craig Feeney delivered into the six-yard box for Hurst to nick a shot across the ’keeper.

“Cinderford hit the bar three times but, though we didn’t play particularly well, we showed lots of effort and didn’t give up the ghost,” said Riley.

“If we bring our A game to the replay, we can get ourselves through to the next round, but we’ve got to perform,” he stressed.

“Today we had a few players who would admit they were below par. We were lack-lustre at times in the final third and not as creative as we can be.

“Luckily we’ve given ourselves a second chance and we’ll take that after what happened last time at Cinderford.

“We’ve played Cinderford twice this season, but they haven’t seen us at our best yet and we know we need to improve.”

White’s dismissal, with about five minutes remaining, was a tad unfortunate for the highly thought-of, young defender. “He got booked in the first half for blocking a player and, for the second one, the ref’s not seen anything but the linesman’s flagged him for pulling a player back on the edge of the box,” Riley explained. “Ellis said he had his hands up and the player slipped.”

Should Totton win tomorrow, they would entertain Hereford on Saturday, November 1.