HAYLING United's FA Vase dreams were dashed as they suffered a 4-2 defeat against fellow Wessex League visitors New Milton Town in a rousing tie at Hayling College, on Saturday.
Watched by the club's biggest-ever crowd since the club moved to the College Ground, United trailed 2-0 after an hour but battled back to level the scores with goals from Tom Chapman and Ben Simpson.
With the tie on a knife-edge however it was the
New Forest side who grabbed the initiative to add two more late goals and go through.
"It was a real blood and thunder cup-tie and could have gone either way,' said United manager Matt Parr.
"We played some terrific football after the break and the players gave it their all.
"Unfortunately straight after we equalised they scored from a 45 yard free-kick that was missed by everybody.
"They got their last goal in stoppage time when we had all our players including our goalkeeper in their area for a free-kick.
"It is shame that we couldn't keep our Vase run going but our first year in the competition has been a great experience for the club.
"Looking at the bigger picture it shows the great strides the club is taking.
"The club is well organised with lots of good people working off the pitch to take us in the right direction.
"We had nearly 200 people in the ground for this tie which is our biggest-ever crowd."
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