Game 16: Salisbury City 0.0 Stevenage Borough (FA Cup 4QR) 27.10.07

I had contemplated going to a Wessex game as this tie didn't really appeal but Andy persuaded me to attend as Stuart was coming down from Stevenage for the game. With Pete recovering from a hangover at 2pm, I drove up to the layby and picked them up for a Wembley and playoff final reunion.

This was Stevenage's first visit to the Ray Mac and the programme highlighted what pedigree they had in the FA Cup. However the recent resignation of their manager and injuries to a number of key players seemed to have an effect as a busy Salisbury team limited their first half chances to single figures. Despite this, they were the best chances of the half as Morison put a shot well wide of the post when put through and McMahon shot straight at Ryan Clarke from close range.

In the second half, Stevenage's play was better and they created more chances with some good passing and intelligent use of the ball. One shot came back from the crossbar with Clarke well beaten while other shots were either directly at Clarke or were deflected wide. Salisbury had been pressing well but started to get tired which allowed Stevenage more time on the ball. Then came a great opportunity for the Whites. The assistant flagged as a shot was blocked on the line - at first I thought he'd given a goal but it turned out to be a penalty as a Stevenage player had handled in the box.

Matt Tubbs stepped up to take the kick and I wasn't confident as he'd missed the last penalty I'd seen him take against Cambridge last year. Perhaps the delay in getting the kick taken didn't help as he put his shot past the keeper but past the left hand post as well. If it had gone in then Salisbury would have been into the First Round again but a replay will be needed on Tuesday night.

When we got back to watch the Pompey v West Ham game, we joked that there would be a late penalty after seeing Solano miss 2 glorious chances for the away team... on 94 minutes Benjani stepped up to take a penalty and the keeper saved it so the game ended 0.0 - almost a carbon copy of the game we'd watched earlier in the afternoon. Still, when the FA Cup 1st round draw came through from the BBC website, we weren't too disappointed to see Exeter (a) - while a win at Stevenage was possible we felt it was unlikely that they would play that poorly again so at least we wouldn't miss out on the chance to giant kill a League team.