Frome Town are through to the Third Round of the FA Trophy after overcoming National League South side Worthing.
Worthing became the tenth National League side to visit Badgers Hill in either the FA Trophy or FA Cup and left as the ninth team who failed to win at our ground.
The Robins got off to the best possible start through the hard-working Sam Meakes, who once again continued his goal-scoring streak when he showed great determination, hassling the defender, winning the ball, turning and slotting past the goalkeeper.
After sucking up pressure for the next ten minutes, the flood gate opened with plenty of chances coming Frome’s way, Sam Teale had a header go just over the bar in the 20th minute and Jonathan
It was then Meakes' turn to go close and he was likely disappointed not to score. HE was played through and opened his body up à la Thierry Henry, but didn’t quite have the finish to match as his effort rolled wide of the far post.
Half-time arrived and, from a neutral's point of view, it would have been difficult to tell which of the sides belonged to the National League South, with Frome’s only disappointment being that they weren’t ahead by more than one.
Worthing came out the second half, looking much better, creating chances and they were rewarded in the 52nd minute, after a precise cross from the left was met by the head of Michael Klass who’s point-blank header found the back of the net.
Despite the heavy pressure from the Rebels, Frome found themselves back in the lead 63 minutes in, through Jonathan Davies, who beat the keeper to the ball and composed himself to slot into an empty net, sending the home crowd into raptures.
The Somerset side, defended superbly for the remainder of the game with Kyle Phillips making some unbelievable stops from point-blank range throughout and one thought it was just going to be one of those days for Worthing.
Frome thought they had got their third in the 88th minute, which would have calmed the nerves. The ball appeared to be well over the line, but the officials deemed that it wasn’t.
Then, deep in to stoppage time, what felt like heartbreak at the time, the West Sussex side equalised through the last kick of the game, Oliver Pearce’s free-kick was too good even for Phillips to keep out ,meaning the match would go to a penalty shootout.
Worthing took first and Phillips stepped up once again, coincidentally enough saving Pearce’s penalty but Frome couldn’t capitalise as Warren Maidment’s penalty was saved well by Roco Rees.
Both teams scored their second penalty and the big turning point came from Worthing’s third penalty, where once again Phillips made the save and George Rigg converted his penalty to put Frome ahead.
Worthing responded with a cooly taken penalty before Pierce Mitchell put Frome on the cusp of glory, converting his penalty.
Worthing did all they could scoring their fifth, and, despite the music coming on before Ross Staley took his penalty, it didn’t affect him in the slightest. His penalty was low and hard into the bottom right corner, completing one of the biggest upsets of the season.
Frome will find out their opponent in the Third Round on Monday, which will be played the weekend of the 9th of December, and, with National League sides now in the draw, there could potentially be another David vs Goliath story on the cards.
Match report and live updates by Harrison Richards.
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Well , we get the third home draw in a row, and fourth out of six... and it's a cracker against Vanarama South Torquay United., who sit a couple of places above Worthing!
We are going to get a 1,000 plus crowd for this game as Torquay fans make the most of anything remotely local! They played Weston SM on a Tuesday night recently and WSM's average crowd went from 1,300 to 2,300! They also played an FA Cup game at Wimborne this season and Wimborne's average gate went from 570 to 1,852 ! So, it looks like the queue for a Bovril and a KitKat is going to exceed the 15 - 20 minutes i…
Third round… Home tie please, against a team that will bring lots of away fans and that we’ve never played before? So in no order of preference Hartlepool, Scunthorpe, Chesterfield, Oldham Athletic, Torquay, Gateshead (if it will count as revenge for Jarrow?) or Southend (with Salts as guest of honour) etc
Well, what a stupendous performance that was from our boys at ‘The Hill’ yesterday. Absolutely riveting stuff and the sheer exhilaration and elation that exploded around the ground as Ross Staley’s penalty thundered past the keeper to put us through was an an experience that no one at the ‘The Hill’ (just 3 shy of 600) is going to forget for a very long time.
The crowd created a great atmosphere throughout and the sheer din of the drumming on the advertising hoardings, followed by the joyful chaos, or a fair amount of sheer relief, as Phillips saved another, or one of our brave penalty takers’ thunderous drives settled into the back of the net, in-front of our very ow…