FA TROPHY Didcot Town 3, Chippenham Town 1 (aet)

THE fog came seconds too late to spare Chippenham the indignity of another embarrassing cup exit at the hands of lower league opposition.

But the gathering gloom did offer Darren Perrin and his players a place to hide in the wake of this shock FA Trophy defeat.

To his credit, the manager chose to answer his critics head-on.

Perrin was adamant his side should have been awarded a penalty kick in the second half of extratime with the scores level at 1-1.

He said: "There's a lot of anger and disappointment in the dressing room right now.

"The players feel there was a blatant handball in the box before their second goal - the big decisions went against us tonight.

"There was another handball before the third goal, but by then it didn't matter. We had two players in Sean Seavill and Alan Griffin who could barely walk by that point."

This was by no means another Slimbridge, where Chippenham were outplayed by their Hellenic League hosts for long periods.

The Bluebirds enjoyed much of the possession and territory but frequently lacked the cutting edge required to trouble Chris Webb in the Didcot goal.

And yet the visitors should have taken the lead after 45 seconds when Alan Griffin saw his deflected shot cleared off the line by Danny Campbell.

The Railwaymen responded in kind with a series of quick breaks from midfield.

Striker Stuart Beavon was electric throughout and the one solace for the Chippenham defence is that they won't have to face him in the league this season.

It was Beavon who gave Didcot the lead after nine minutes when he pounced on a weak back-header from Paul Milsom before rounding Chris Snoddy to score.

The same player sent a fierce shot fizzing over the Chippenham bar seconds later after a sublime interchange with Jamie Brooks.

Chippenham finally wiped the sleep from their eyes after 15 minutes and pressed Didcot deep into their own half.

Dave Gilroy saw his close-range effort smothered by Webb and the Didcot stopper was called into action minutes later to tip Kye Holly's shot over the bar.

Holly tested Webb's handing again on the half hour mark with a dipping free-kick which was palmed away for another corner.

Ross Adams collapsed under a challenge on the stroke of half-time and was taken to hospital during interval after it was suspected he had swallowed his tongue.

After a scrappy opening to the second half, Chippenham drew level with the goal of the game.

Sean Seavill released Gilroy with a defence-splitting pass and the striker lobbed the advancing Webb with a clinical finish.

Griffin shot narrowly over the bar and then hit the target with a left-footed strike which was easily gathered by Webb.

At the other end, Snoddy made an important save with his legs to deny Brooks an injury time winner.

An injury to skipper Ian Herring forced Perrin into his third and final substitution at the start of extratime.

And when Seavill and Griffin both picked up knocks, the visitors were walking wounded for the remaining 30 minutes.

When a handball from Dicot substitute Gary Wickens went unpunished, the hosts took full advantage to hit Chippenham on the counter attack.

Brooks raced onto a neat back-heel from Beavon and his shot took a wicked deflection off Garner and looped over Snoddy.

Beavon made sure of the win five minutes from time with a low strike which flew in off the post.

Chippenham's misery was complete when Griffin saw red for shoving Wickens to the ground in stoppage time.

Perrin said afterwards he was pleased with the performance and felt his side were unlucky to lose.

"I've been a lot more disappointed after other games this season than I am tonight. I felt we did enough to take the game to penalties.

"We would have loved to have played Newport in the next round so it's very disappointing to lose."