Peterborough Sports suffer FA Cup heartbreak again

For the third time in four seasons Sports fell at the fourth qualifying round hurdle, just one step away from joining the likes of Peterborough United and Ipswich Town in the first round draw,

Sports were far from their best, but it took a 57th-minute penalty from fellow National League North side Curzon Ashton to knock them out. A bumper crowd of 513 wasn’t enough to roar Sports through or even to a replay.

It was a decent start to the game for the Turbines as Connor Kennedy went close on a couple of occasions in the first 15 minutes, but it soon became a bit of a midfield stalemate with neither team able to create much of quality. Sports had a big shout for handball in the opposition area, but the referee was having none of it.

The status quo continued into the half-time period and you could almost feel the motivational speeches coming out of both dressing rooms as it really felt like a single goal would win this one.

And so it was to be. Curzon Ashton were awarded a soft looking penalty when their player was deemed to have been brought down in the box and Joshua Hancock beat Peter Crook to give the visitors the lead.

Sports huffed and puffed, but their best effort came on 76 minutes when a Dion Sembie-Ferris cross found the head of substitute Mark Jones who headed narrowly wide.

But it was one of those days when Sports just couldn't get it right and 8 minutes of stoppage time, mainly due to a mass melee midway through the half, passed by with no solid efforts on the Curzon Ashton goal.

Sports: Crook, Bazeley, Fox, Fryatt, Johnson, Kennedy, Hilliard, Lawlor, Sembie-Ferris, Sani, Gash. Subs: M. Jones, Elsom. McCammon, R. Jones, Williams-Lowe, Doorbar-Baptist, Sherif.