Solihull Boro 2, Evesham Utd 1

AFTER outplaying Solihull for virtually the entire 90 minutes last Wednesday night, there was more torment for Dave Busst's charges.

It was almost inevitable that the Premier Division strugglers would score first after an awful miss by Danny Williams, three misdirected shots from Richard Ball and Gavin O'Toole free-kick that struck a post and they did when Scott Voice was allowed time and space to curl the ball past Tim Clarke in injury-time.

When O'Toole was again left shaking his head in disbelief when penalised for a perfect tackle and Voice outjumped Lee Knight to nod in the subsequent free-kick, Evesham were in a state of shock.

Their slick passing game had by now disintegrated but they were still well on top although Voice missed a great chance to complete his hat-trick and seal United's League Cup fate although had Ball's shot rebounded backwards off the bar and not to safety, then the Robins would have received a lifeline.

Boss Busst used all his three replacements in an attempt to repeat the heroics of the previous round at Yate and , when one of them, Leon Blake, squeezed in a left-footer that was helped in by fellow substitute Grant Pinkney, Solihull were in a state of panic.

However, the visitors couldn't summon up the equaliser that their display had deserved and, the sight of goalkeeper Tim Clarke lumbering up the length of the field to add weight at a stoppage-time corner, was testimony to their desperation to take the third round tie into extra-time.

Alas, the ball just wouldn't go into the net and the losers were left to reflect on a third successive away defeat of 2005 leaving them to direct their sights only on the main objective of promotion.