Totton & Eling lived to fight another day following a gritty 0-0 draw with Sydenhams Premier title favourites, Sholing, at Millers Park in the FA Cup preliminary round.

The Millers gave the Boatmen an uncomfortable afternoon, deservedly forcing a replay at Portsmouth Road on Tuesday.

Sholing were without unavailable midfielders Byron Mason and Tyronne Bowers, while T&E’s problems grew when Byron Gharibian and Shaun Hughes pulled out on the morning of the match.

Nevertheless, it was the home side who made the early running with lively striker Jude Nwachurwu putting an early header over and Steve Marwood chancing his arm from distance.

Sholing took ten minutes to wake their ideas up, forcing successive corners – the first of which was deflected wide from Lewis Fennemore’s flicked header.

The Boatmen peppered the T&E box with some testing deliveries, but the Millers stood up well to the pressure and were unsettling the Boatmen with their terrier-like tackling.

Fennemore delivered a searching cross in Lee Wort’s direction, but it landed just behind the prolific marksman, who was being tightly marked.

With the home side working tirelessly on another warm August afternoon, Sholing had yet to muster a shot on target.

And it was the underdogs who threatened to take the lead on the half-hour when Ben’yela Ngwa out-jumped Sholing’s towering defence and headed on for Nwachurwu, who appeared to have a free run at goal. But the experience of defender Pete Castle rescued the visitors with a perfectly timed tackle inside the box.

On 37 minutes Sholing lost Nick Watts to injury, forcing Marvin McLean to switch to the left wing with substitute Barry Mason taking over on the right.

Mason immediately made his mark with a dangerous cross which T&E managed to head out for a corner.

With stoppage time approaching, Mason unleashed a full-blooded shot from distance which ricocheted behind and, from Kev Brewster’s corner, Danny Cox headed wide.

Brewster’s cross narrowly evaded Mike Carter at the far post at the start of the second half, but still Sholing struggled to trouble T&E’s new goalkeeper Kevin O’Rourke.

The visitors had probably their best chance on 53 minutes when Lee Thorne was penalised for climbing all over Ashley Jarvis.

With frustration creeping into Sholing’s game, the Millers began to ruffle their feathers once more and the Boatmen scrambled away a low, goal-bound shot by Danny Fox.

Wort was a shadow of his normal self as demonstrated when skipper Carter picked him out with a sublime cross-field pass, but Thorne immediately dispossessed him.

Fennemore was withdrawn on 68 minutes, making way for young gun Tom Ashton to get his first taste of first-team football.

Brewster then went off injured and another of Sholing’s home grown youngsters, Dan Miller, came on, while Will McNamara replaced the experienced Marwood.

T&E’s Murray Holmes became the first player booked on 76 minutes for shoving McLean, but Cox curled the free kick just past the back post.

On 80 minutes there was a nasty clash of heads between Cox and Ngwa as T&E crossed from the left and, with the referee failing to blow as the pair crashed to the ground, Fox dipped a shot just over for the never-say-die Millers.

Ngwa continued after treatment, but Cox needed further attention and a change of shirt before rejoining the action.

T&E had another chance when Lee Bright gave a free kick away, but Matt Brown was right behind Holmes’ 20-yard shot.

Two minutes into stoppage time, hearts were in Totton mouths when O’Rourke sprinted out of his area and missed the ball, which landed straight at Wort’s feet.

But, having cut inside, the off-colour striker slammed the ball straight at Luke Ansell.

There was still one last piece of drama to come when young Ashton was penalised for fouling Richard Bridle.

Holmes slung the ball into the box, Ansell steered it goal-wards and Ngwa somehow put it over, although the linesman had already flagged for offside.