There wasn't much of a welcome home for Alton Town as they returned to their Anstey Road ground following a six-week absence on Saturday.

The basement battlers not only lost 3-2 against Blackfield & Langley after leading twice, they also had John Edwards sent off while teammates Steve Larvan and Simon Chivers were carried off to hospital in the same ambulance!

Yet the afternoon had started so well for Alton and Chivers, whose close-range finish had given the home team a half-time lead.

Blackfield were back on terms on the hour mark when Mike Collins netted with a 20-yard free-kick, only for Alton to regain the lead after 75 minutes through Gary Bennett.

Alton then lost Chivers (suspected broken collarbone) and Larvan (suspected broken leg) and had salt rubbed in their wounds when Blackfield equalised from the incident which left Larvan on the ground.

"A loud crack was heard by everyone. I thought that the referee would blow up but he didn't and they scored," sighed Alton chairman Jim McKell. "The only good thing is we've heard Steve's leg isn't broken."

With Larvan stricken on the pitch, Danny Mockeridge cut in from the right to thump home a left-footed shot on 78 minutes and, seven minutes later, Andy McIsaac crossed for Chris Bell to crash a stunning volley into the top corner of the net.

Blackfield co-manager Tony Feeney said: "We have had to dig deep today and we've scrapped out a good result.

"We took over the side late last season with 12 points and finished with 18 and we've already picked up 11 points this season so Andy and I are very pleased."

Lymington & New Milton striker Patrick James has won the FA Cup player-of-the-round award following his hat-trick in last week's 8-2 second qualifying round demolition of Clevedon United.

The 22-year-old polled 59 per cent of more than 3,000 votes that were cast on-line at TheFA.com seeing him beat off rivals Sam Winston of Boreham Wood and Gedling Town striker Steve Scoffham.

James will be presented with his award on Wednesday afternoon - but he quickly celebrated his achievement on Saturday by opening the scoring for the Linnets in their 3-0 victory over Portland.

A good move down the right flank saw Trevor Smith advance into the penalty area where he squared the ball for James to slam the hosts into a sixth-minute lead.

Lymington had to wait until the 67th minute before adding a second, Ben Thomson knocking a free-kick to the back post where Darren Curtis sent a looping header over the 'keeper. Kevin James bagged a third ten minutes from time with a close-range effort.