Basingstoke Town 1, Chippenham Town 0

A CRAIG McAllister penalty, scored in the 72nd minute, put Town through to the third round of the FA Trophy for the first time in the club's history.

As in Saturday's 1-1 draw in Wiltshire, which forced the replay, Town dominated. But they failed to convert their chances and had to settle for a slender margin of victory.

However, over the course of the two games, Chippenham can have no complaints that Town deserved to progress to a third round tie at King's Lynn next month.

After a slow start, Town - unchanged for the first time this season - began attacking with some good work down the flanks and balls into the channels.

McAllister and midfielder Alex Ewin were guilty of missing two clear-cut opportunities in the first half, both toe-poking wide from 12-yards with just visiting goalie Mark Hervin to beat on each occasion.

Town forward Neville Roach shot wide and defender Jason Bristow headed over as the home side controlled proceedings without netting.

Ernie Howe's side could have comfortably been three goals up at half-time. But the game's turning point came in the 50th minute, when Blues 'keeper Scott Tarr made up for his error on Saturday that allowed Nathan Edwards' injury-time equaliser.

Tarr produced a magnificent save to deny Gary Horgan from just six yards. Unmarked Horgan had just Tarr to beat but he spread himself large to put doubt in the player's mind.

Even though he had gone down when Horgan attempted to lob firmly, Tarr's strong hand beat the ball out. It was a brilliant piece of goalkeeping to deny the clearest opportunity of the game and ensured Town's morale did not dim.

The penalty came after Ewin had bulldozed his way past four Chippenham defenders into the area. A blocked tackle and subsequent ricochet saw the ball find Roach 10-yards out.

His skill drew a desperate tackle from Gareth Davies that brought down the Blues man and referee Chris Banks had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. There were no visiting dissenters.

McAllister stepped up to plant the ball into the bottom-left corner, just past the dive of Hervin, who guessed correctly but was beaten.

Chippenham brought on Charlie Griffin to play up front with Blues old boy Adie Mings and Davies also moved forward in support over the closing 15 minutes.

It almost paid dividends when Davies headed a deep cross back across the six-yard line four minutes from time but Griffin was always labouring to reach the ball and it went out for a goal-kick.

With it went Chippenham's second chance of the game and they were out of the competition minutes later when Banks blew the final whistle, to the delight of the Camrose fans.

Basingstoke Town: Scott Tarr, David Ray, Matt Warner, Ben Surey, Jason Bristow, Ricky Allaway, Nathan Stamp, Oliver Burgess (sub Efon Elad 83min), Craig McAllister, Neville Roach, Alex Ewin. Not used: Steve Hemmings, Barry Elmore, Ian Dickens, John Dyer.