Co-managers Tim Cole and Danny Robinson were full of pride for their Winchester City side that pushed a Concord Rangers team that play three tiers higher to the dying embers of their FA Cup third round qualifying tie.
It could have been easy for City to travel to the Aspect Arena to get pushed around by a powerful Vanarama South Beachboys outfit.
But, as Robinson and Cole planned, they played their passing football but were pipped 3-2 in a David v Goliath clash.
Hot-shot striker Warren Bentley levelled with a superb volley with his back to goal, but the Sydenhams Premier Division side went into the interval 2-1 down after Steve Cawley’s double – one of which was a long range lob.
Matt Fry, who played a few games for Eastleigh this season, put the Canvey Island side 3-1 up.
But with 15 minutes left Bentley converted his second from the penalty spot, setting up an intense finale.
“We couldn’t lose today whatever happened,” Robinson said. “We weren’t expected to come and get a result.
“But the level of performance that we did put in, the quality that we showed at times, we matched them for pretty much the whole game.
“It could have been a different story if we took our chances at key times.
“We’ve come to a Conference South club and we’ve come away thinking ‘what if?’ “The people that travelled up would have loved to have seen a miracle. Unfortunately we didn’t pull that off but we can be very proud of ourselves.”
Concord had more clear-cut chances in the opening half hour, but City keeper Jason Collins was on hot-form, and continued to be through the whole tie.
The former Alresford stopper smothered danger from onrushing forward Lewis Taaffe and thwarted him again with an outstanding reaction save nearing half time.
City were energetic on the attack, Zach Glasspool and Bentley were fed well by the midfield and both had shots saved by Aaron Lennox.
“They had a little bit more class than us to a certain degree,” said Cole. “We had our chances and had we put them away we could have won.
“We never play with any fear and we had a massive crowd turn up, we had more supporters than they had. They were behind us as well.
“I knew from the start we’d compete, the standard was good.
“We were up for it today. I was really proud of how we played. We created a lot of chances. It was an entertaining game.
“It could have gone either way, so credit to the lads.”
Indeed, just as Winchester looked more settled in possession on 32 minutes, Cawley struck.
Midfielder Chris Mason’s errant pass found him just past half way. With a bit of time and space he went for the ambitious and pulled it off – his lob gave Collins no chance.
But it didn’t deflate Winchester. On 38 minutes, as full back Ryan Holloway knocked back into the box from a Mason corner, Bentley, with his back to goal, was alert and flicked a superb volley around his marker as well as stopper Lennox.
After Mason painfully missed an open goal, Concord broke. As Taaffe enticed stopper Collins out he squared to Cawley, who stabbed into an empty net with seconds left of the half.
Collins continued his fine performance after the break and at the other end, Bentley remained sharp.
Just past the hour Fry scored after Steve King had thundered a header against the bar.
With 15 minutes left, a lifeline for City as Bentley was taken down in the box. The striker converted from the spot to set up an intense finale.
Winchester City: Jason Collins, Ryan Holloway, Joe Wright, Stuart Green (c) (Chris Manning 68), Leigh Mills, Luke Dempsey, Michael McEnery, Chris Mason (Liam Green 68), Zach Glasspool, Warren Bentley, Dominic Cope (Adam Roberts 80). Unused subs:, Ben Stanbrook, Geoff Dunn, , Callum Casson, Ross Casey.
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