The 'sloppy' moments which contributed to Fareham Town's FA Vase exit in eight-goal Abbey Rangers thriller

The Reds were beaten 5-3 in a thrilling second round encounter with Combined Counties Premier Abbey Rangers at Cams Alders.

On the whole, boss Stiles was pleased with his side's showing as they battled back from 1-0 down and 3-1 down to level the tie at 3-3 to set up an intriguing final 10 minutes or so.

But the Fareham boss was left lamenting the 'poor goals' given away by his troops as Abbey finished with a flourish to come away victorious in an eight-goal thriller.

Stiles said: ‘It’s disappointing because in a funny sort of way we played well.

‘We absolutely gifted them, certainly the first two goals, bad mistakes. The first goal, he’s beaten one of our players, beat the keeper at the near post - you’d expect us to do better than that.

‘We get level and then we give away a stupid corner which they score from. We should deal with these things better.

‘We actually played quite well but we’ve conceded five goals. To be fair, the fourth and fifth (goals, we were pressing them so hard.

‘At three-all we had a great chance to hit the winner but it didn’t go in. They then go up the other end and score - that’s how fine lines in football can be.’

Gary Austin's fine effort found the top corner as his 26th-minute strike cancelled out Evan Lopes opener inside eight minutes.

But Daryl Cooper-Smith's quickfire double in the build-up to the break gave Abbey a 3-1 half-time advantage.

Fareham kept battling after the restart and a 15-minute double from Jack Breed, who had made it 3-2 on 58 minutes, set up a thrilling finale.

Yet despite all their efforts, the Reds would succumb to Abbey with efforts in the closing stages from Marcus Williams and Jae Kelly ensuring their side's passage into the FA Vase third round.