SHOLING have another all-Southern One South & West battle ahead in the FA Trophy after edging Hampshire rivals Bashley 1-0 in Saturday’s preliminary round.

The Boatmen will now entertain Tiverton Town in the first qualifying round on Saturday, November 1 – the Devonshire outfit having seen off Wantage 2-0.

After Tuesday’s 4-2 Red Insure Cup triumph at Bashley Road, Sholing’s second knockout meeting in five days with the Foresters was a much tighter affair.

A scrappy game played on a poor pitch looked to be petering out for a replay when, with just nine minutes of normal time remaining, good work by Tobi Adekunle picked out fellow sub Alex Baldacchino who pulled the ball across for Daniel Mason some ten yards from goal.

The young Sholing striker – who had scored twice on Tuesday – did the rest, managing to pull the ball down and volley home as he was falling.

“Daniel seemed to take an age to pull it down, but he’s coming into his own a bit now with the goals he’s scoring,” said Sholing co-boss Dave Fear.

“We’d had a few chances to put the game to bed earlier and it could have been 4-1 at half-time.

“We didn’t just scrape through, we had the lion’s share of the play. But, to be fair to Bashley, they worked very, very hard and didn’t give us time on the ball and they grazed the woodwork at one stage.”

That near miss by Bashley arrived with half-time approaching when Brad Morris set up Nuno Pereira whose shot skimmed off Matt Brown’s crossbar.

Sam Wilson was a lively presence up front for Sholing and Alex Sawyer, one of several players who had been rested on Tuesday, wasted a glorious chance to put the reigning FA Vase holders back on the road to Wembley when he went one-on-one with Bash ’keeper Callum Maher but shot high and wide.

Second-half sub Baldacchino had barely been on the pitch five minutes when he was denied by Maher following some near inter-play between Nick Watts and Mason.

Marvin McLean was also denied, this time by Maher’s feet, before a Kev Brewster shot flew wide.

A pivotal moment came on 70 minutes when a long ball over the top sent Bashley’s Lewis Crook away with Stuart Mott for company. Mott, already on a yellow card, resisted making a rash challenge, stuck with his man and forced him to shoot tamely.

Sholing’s reward for victory is a £2,500 slice of the FA Trophy prize fund.

“The money’s always handy, so the chairman will be happy with that,” smiled Fear.

The Boatmen have yet another cup game on Wednesday, entertaining Hampshire Premier outfit Winchester Castle in the Russell Cotes (7.45pm). They return to league action at home to Taunton Town on Saturday