Horndean crash out of the FA Cup against 10-man lower division opponents Bemerton Heath

The Gosport Borough legend - who fired 47 goals in all competitions in 2019/20 – struck early on and again from the penalty spot three minutes from the end last night.

Assistant manager Jason Mann was in charge of the visitors as Michael Birmingham was sitting out the last game of a ban hanging over from last season.

Mann felt his team played well enough – against opposition from one division lower in the Wessex League Division 1 - but didn’t get the rub of the green.

‘For the first 45 minutes we played some of the best football I have seen us play in a long time,’ he said.

‘We moved the ball around at a high tempo and created numerous opportunities. I felt that we were by far the better side.

‘The turning point came after 30 minutes when they had a player (Kane O’Keefe) sent off.

‘That took the momentum away from us and after that we tried to force it too much.

‘They went narrow and we played too many long balls.

‘Robbie Taw delivered some quality balls across the box but we didn’t gamble enough to get on the end of them.’

A disastrous back-pass from Ash Howes after just five minutes gifted Bemerton the lead.

He sent the ball straight to Bennett who fired home into the empty net.

Horndean reacted well and were awarded a penalty when Harry Jackson was felled in the area.

Miles Everett saw his penalty saved but Conor Duffin converted the rebound.

With a penalty shoot-out on the cards, Louie Martin was adjudged to have brought a home forward down in the area and Bennett made no mistake with his spot-kick.

Bemerton now face Southern Leaguers Sholing in the preliminary round on September 12.