Date: Wed 01 Feb 2023

By Steve Whitney

It's The End of the Trophy Road for Harrow & Coalville

It’s the end of the road for Harrow Borough and Coalville Town in the Isuzu FA Trophy as both bowed out on Tuesday night in their delayed Fourth Round ties.

For Harrow, struggling in the Premier Division South, it was heartbreak as they held Vanarama National League visitors FC Halifax Town to a 2-2 draw in normal time, but bowed out on penalties.

The Shaymen took the lead just minutes before the break when Harrow failed to deal with a long throw and Rob Harker fired the loose ball past Jacob Knightsbridge in the home goal.

Harrow pulled back on level terms with a terrific free kick from George Moore after 66 minutes.

Halifax regained the lead with less than 4 minutes to go when Harvey Gilmour slid in Harker for his second of the night.

But deep into stoppage time, the hosts were back level when Gilmour’s headed clearance from a corner fell to Moore who fired home in off the post.

So, it was a penalty shoot-out to decide who goes through into the last 16, and FC Halifax triumphed 6-5 and it is they who travel to league rivals Maidenhead United in the Fifth Round on Saturday, February 11th.

At the Plant Hire Community Stadium, Premier Division Central club Coalville Town were edged out by National League North hosts Banbury United by the odd goal in five.

It was last season’s Premier Division Central champions who took the lead after 26 minutes when Alex Babos set up Henry Landers to beat Paul White in the Coalville goal.

And the Puritans doubled their advantage just 6 minutes later when Landers grabbed his second after good work from Jack Stevens.

The visitors came close to pulling one back 5 minutes before the break, but Babos managed to clear a Billy Kee effort off the line.

Then, just past the hour-mark, Coalville had a great chance to equalise when Ben Acquaye was penalised for a challenge in the box.

But Jack Harding saved Tim Berridge’s resulting penalty.

Banbury punished their visitors for that miss by making it 3-1 in the 78th minute when Craig Hewitt was put through to beat White.

Three minutes into time added on at the end of the game, Chris Robertson pulled it back to 2-3 from a free kick but the Ravens didn’t have time to equalise.

Banbury now welcome Gateshead at home in the last 16, leaving Premier Division South club Bracknell Town flying the Southern League flag in the Fifth Round when they entertain National League side Altrincham.

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