UNDERDOGS Hartley Wintney's great run in the FA Cup came to an end in front of a bumper home crowd, as they lost 6-1 to visiting Daventry Town.

The village side were one step away from the first round proper of the competition, but found the Southern League Division One Central leaders too hot to handle.

They never deserved to lose 6-1, but sometimes football is cruel game, but the team can be proud they reached the fourth qualifying round.

Hartley player/manager Ben Dillon was humble in defeat and said: “We started well and then gave away two sloppy goals. We then went for broke and got caught out, hence why the scoreline was so high.
“Full credit to Daventry, but we have put Hartley on the map having got this far in competition.
“I am proud of all my players and it was great to see a big crowd here today.”

Hartley certainly gave most of the 1,000 crowd something to cheer about early on, as Max Elward was given time to tee up a long range effort, which flew over the head of visiting goalkeeper Richard Morris.

The visitors hit back and Ryan Howell curled in a lovely effort from the edge of the area to make it 1-1 on 20 minutes.

The home side went looking for the lead again. Sam Argent fired just wide and then Ross Oulton had a shot blocked by Hartley captain Stuart Urquhart.

Daventry then scored twice in as many minutes as Ashley Robinson headed in at the near post from Oulton’s corner.

Then almost immediately, Robinson broke through again, and was brought down by Ashley Lloyd in the penalty area.

The defender was shown a yellow card and Liam Coleman fired the spot kick, low and into the corner just wide of hand of the diving Craig Atkinson.

Having come back from 3-1 down in their last FA Cup tie, Hartley were certainly not out of the game and Argent forced a save and then right on half-time Hartley’s Ian Jones headed off the line.

With 10 minutes of the second-half gone, player/manager Ben Dillon added even more firepower to the Hartley attack, as they pushed forward to get a goal.

However, this left gaps at the back and just after the hour mark, Daventry scored a fourth, as Tom Lorraine fired across the body the Atkinson into the far corner.

Hartley’s striker Argent then saw his shot go just over the bar, but the visitors added number five with a delightful chip from Adam Conflie.

Three minutes from time, Daventry added a sixth as Neil King’s free-kick found his way through a crowd of players and into the net.