As in the last round, though, the Hawks made extremely hard work of a tie they seemed to have in the bag by half-time.

At the break, the home side led 2-0 with goals from Gary Holloway and Paul Booth and looked in complete command.

But criminally, they took their foot off the pedal in the second 45 minutes and allowed Godalming back into the game.

At the end it was the Hawks hanging on to avoid the prospect of another replay against a side playing two leagues below them.

They are now just 90 minutes away from making the first-round proper and the chance to repeat last season's heroics, and manager Shaun Gale was grateful for that.

'We are in the hat for the next round and that is what is important,' said a relieved Gale.

'That is just like us at the moment and the second half was a great disappointment.

'What annoyed me the most was we stopped doing what we had done in the opening 25 minutes when we absolutely pulverised them.

'At 2-0 up and cruising, we then came out and the game changed. When teams get a goal it gives them something to chase.

'It is all about keeping good habits going for 90 minutes and we didn't do that.'

After a brief opening flurry from the visitors, the Hawks soon made their quality count to score twice and were unlucky not to go in at half-time with even more goals under their belt.

Holloway put the Hawks ahead in the 12th minute when he burst through the middle and, though his first shot was blocked, it cannoned back off him and past the wrong-footed Rodney Chiweshe in the Godalming goal.

Within three minutes Booth extended the home side's advantage with his first goal for the club after Shaun Wilkinson latched on to a mistake on the half-way line to play an incisive throughball.

Booth, looking stronger game by game following his long lay-off, outmuscled his defender, rounded Chiweshe and rolled the ball into the empty net.

Luke Nightingale then rattled the crossbar with a thunderous drive as the Hawks had the visitors on the rack.

The Hawks, however, made the mistake of thinking the tie was won and, when Graeme Purdie reduced the arrears in the 56th minute, they suddenly found themselves with a fight on their hands.

Now it was the Ryman minnows who sensed blood and the Hawks had to survive some uneasy moments before holding out to claim their place in the next round.

'Fair play to them they threw the kitchen sink at us and had nothing to lose,' said Gale.

'We allowed them to dictate the game and that was a major disappointment.

'There were some tired performances out there from us and we have had a busy time of late.

'In the end we got a result, but I am far from pleased with that.'