'It's not over yet!'

Thatcham manager still hopeful of progress as Town head for Weymouth in FA Trophy replay chasing another home tie

THATCHAM manager Gary Ackling is confident that his side still has a chance of springing a surprise in Tuesday night's FA Trophy replay at Weymouth after his nine-men were denied an automatic place in the Third Qualifying Round by a last minute equaliser.

They were only seconds away from securing another home tie against Blue Square South side Havant and Waterlooville on November 26.

Thatcham led through Sam Tucker's 20th minute goal, but had Tucker and skipper Gareth Thomas controversially sent off in the second period, when assistant manager Jason Braidwood was also dismissed and marched off the pitch by referee Adrian Gillett.

They were decisions that upset manager Ackling: “I'm not one to criticise referees normally,” he said, “I think they've got a very hard job, but I just cannot defend his decisions.

“As for the two sendings off, I thought one was a booking but Sam Tucker's was not even a booking,” he added. “He won the ball fair and clean but nowadays you just can't tackle, and that's the problem.

“I was annoyed with the referee at half-time because their manager was speaking to him and he' addressing him ‘Yes Brendan, no Brendan' and as soon as I have a word with him, he gets all aggressive with me.

“At the end of the day, I thought Weymouth played better than us and were the better side on the day but, to concede in those circumstances so late on after we put in so much hard work defending our lead, particularly when we went down to nine men, was a blow. “But I don't think all is lost,” he stressed.

“We'll go down there, it is a nice stadium and they'll be expecting to win and the crowd will expect them to push on.

“And the way we set ourselves up, we might be more suited to playing down there.

“I felt we created more chances when we went down to 10 men than we did when we had 11 on the field. They were pushing and pushing and we were finding gaps and picking them off on the counter attack, and maybe we can hit them on the break and cause an upset.

“I don't think we are out of it.”