ALRESFORD Town have lost their grip on the Hampshire FA Senior Cup.

The holders were dumped out in the third round last night, beaten 2-1 at Sydenhams Premier rivals AFC Portchester, writes Wendy Gee.

Alresford fell behind on 33 minutes when Nathan Kirby headed home Joe Bye’s corner and their cause was not helped when, 11 minutes into the second half, Joe Wright was red-carded for bringing down Simon Woods.

Against the odds, the ten-man Magpies equalised on the hour with a deflected 20-yarder from Andy Mott.

But Portchester responded in acrobatic style – Jack Salter-Vaile netting a spectacular 75th-minute scissor-kick winner after Kirby had headed down Danny Thompson’s free kick.

Folland Sports crashed out of the competition 2-0 at home to in-form Whitchurch United.

The Planemakers hit the woodwork no fewer than four times through Ryan Long (twice), Jamie Betteridge and Matt Burt, but succumbed to two second-half goals.

It wasn’t so much the result that infuriated manager Danny Bowers as referee Alex Fisher’s failure to act on foul and abusive language. He said: “In the first four minutes their centre-half blatantly swore at the ref and all he did was yellow card him.Then, in the second half, the same lad got away with a two-footed challenge on Matt Burt. “It’s not sour grapes because I don’t think we deserved to win, but I’m sick to death of these things happening to us.”

Former Eastleigh midfielder Brad Fountain was among the scorers as AFC Bournemouth’s development squad booked their quarter-final ticket with a 5-0 win at Lymington Town. Joe Quigley (2), Sam Kirkwood and Jack Simpson also netted for the Cherries.

l AFC Totton drew 3-3 after extra-time with Fleet Town in the Russell Cotes Cup before triumphing 5-4 on penalties.

The Stags trailed to a Simba Mlambo goal heading into stoppage time, but young centre-half Dan Beckles saved them with a last-gasp leveller.

Sam House made it 2-1 to Totton 14 minutes into extra-time, but Mlambo and player-manager Craig Davis (penalty) put Fleet back in the ascendancy before House nodded in at the near post to set up spot kicks.

Goalkeeper Matt Fredericks atoned for giving away the earlier penalty by scoring the shootout decider.