Poor first half so costly for Worksop Town as Alvechurch defeat sees them miss out on big FA Cup tie

Church took an early lead through Leo Brown before they doubled their advantage just before the break with a solo effort from Jed Abbey which sunk the Tigers after a disappointing opening display.

Their fortunes exacerbated minutes into the second half when Tom Edge added a third.

Worksop continued to push and threatened a comeback in the final 10 minutes as goals from Jack Broadhead and Liam Hughes created a frantic ending, but the hosts held on.

Manager Craig Parry was left feeling dejected at full time.

“Aside from the last 20 minutes, I don’t think we turned up today,” said Parry. “It wasn’t the greatest of performances from us.

"But we cannot take anything away from Alvechurch, who are a step higher and were the better side, and I think it was just a step too far for us.

"Overall, I don’t think we did ourselves justice.

“But we put up a fight for it and took it right to the wire and, with a little bit of luck at the end, we may have scraped something out of it.

“It took us a while to get used to their shape and I think they play that diamond extremely well.

"We got frustrated and when we lost the ball, they flooded us with numbers on either side and we couldn’t get a grip of it.

“When you concede an early goal against a good side, you’re always against it.

"But we gave a good account of ourselves in the final 20 minutes.

“We must be focused now, and we go again because you don’t become a bad side overnight.”

Tigers goalkeeper Sebastian Malkowski had a busy afternoon, making several excellent stops to keep Worksop in the fixture.

“Using the first half more as an example, as we had an equal number of chances in the second half, Seb was outstanding,” added Parry.

“He played a hand in the first goal, but other than that, he’s kept the scoreline down to a decent tally to have a good shot in the second half.”

Tigers are back in NLP action on Saturday at home to Grimsby Borough (3pm).