Worksop Town home in on FA Cup first round proper after narrow win over Gainsborough Trinity

The Tigers took the lead on 22 minutes, as a slick counterattack saw Terry Hawkridge switch play to Jay Rollins, who took the ball in his stride before providing a perfect cross for Paul Green to head home.

Gainsborough came at Worksop in the second period and received a boost when Hamza Bencherif was shown a second yellow card on 53 minutes after dragging former Sheffield United forward Clayton Donaldson to the floor just outside the area.

The Holy Blues failed to trouble Worksop, however, and were also reduced to 10 men when Finley Shrimpton received his marching orders with four minutes remaining.

And Tigers boss Craig Parry praised the way his side dealt with the change in circumstances.

He said: “I thought it was a good performance all round and with the situation that we were in, I thought we played two types of gameplay.

“When it was 11 vs 11, it was a bit of a fight off between both sides and I believe we deservedly went 1-0 up and probably had a couple more chances afterwards to double our lead.

“But the sending off completely changed the way we played in having to go into a low block.

“They tried to overload us down the sides with their wingers and full-backs, but I don’t think they troubled us once we went down to 10 men.

“I’m pleased with the performance because of the number of times we had to adapt in the game.

“We were brilliant off the ball in making sure we covered spaces and that we were rock solid at the back. And a special mention to Wedgy (Sam Wedgbury) who did change his position to go into centre half and did extremely well in marshalling the back four and managing the game from the back.”

Deegan Atherton deputised for the injured Jack Broadhead and put in an outstanding display, as the centre-half defended extremely well. “I thought Deegan was exceptional and has been over the last few games,” added Parry.

Worksop have been drawn away at Southern Premier League side Alvechurch in the fourth round qualifying on Saturday, 15th October.