Portishead Town bowed out of the Buildbase FA Vase after a 3-1 defeat in the second qualifying round to Royal Wotton Bassett Town at Bristol Road today (Saturday).
Bassett opened the scoring through Tommy Ouldridge with a tap in before Hamish Hurst equalised inside the six-yard box.
Alan Griffin restored the lead from the penalty spot in the second half before debutant John Mills’ fine finish sent Sam Collier’s men through to the next round.
Posset came into the game as underdogs and started strongly with Lewis Wheatcroft seeing his shot deflected over before Rob Latham’s low driven effort pushed away by Edward Cavanagh.
But just as looked like an upset was on the Hellenic League Premier Division side opened the scoring after 19 minutes.
A poor defensive header was pounced upon by Ouldridge and the forward rounded George Shanks-Boon before tapping home.
The hosts never deterred, however, and moments after Sam Munton had a shot cleared off the line for a corner the scores were level 10 minutes later.
From Calum Townsend’s corner the ball came back to the former Ashton & Backwell United forward and his low cross was left by captain Elliot Ripley through his legs, allowing Hurst to sidefoot home the equaliser in his first full game following injury.
Wheatcroft almost pulled off a spectacular overhead kick moments before half-time but his effort lacked power as there was nothing to separate the two sides at the interval.
However, Bassett restored their lead after half-time substitute Mills was brought down in the penalty area in the 53rd minute.
Griffin stepped up and sent Shanks-Boon the wrong way from the spot.
And nine minutes later the visitors secured the win when a straightforward ball down the middle was picked up by Mills.
The former Hereford and Didcot Town man saw Shanks-Boon slightly off his line and lobbed him to put the contest out of reach.
But despite being two goals behind Eamonn Daly’s side kept going and substitute’s Dawid Rybak’s teasing cross was headed just over by Latham as the visitors secured themselves in the hat for the first round.
The hosts return to Toolstation Western League Division One action next Saturday when they visit Devizes Town at Nursteed Road.
Portishead Town: Shanks-Boon, Sosnicki, Pearce, Coughan, (Wakefield, 60), Ripley (C), Hurst, Munton, (Rybak, 65), Obeng, Latham, Townsend and Wheatcroft (Parslow, 65)
Goals: Hamish Hurst, 29
Attendance: 67
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