DORCHESTER TOWN 1 CIRENCESTER TOWN 1

DORCHESTER suffered FA Cup frustration at the Avenue today as Jonah Ayunga saw red in a first qualifying round stalemate against league rivals Cirencester.

Magpies’ skipper Jake Smeeton gave his side a 15th-minute lead only for Charlie Griffin to level from the spot later in the first half following a foul on the striker by home keeper Alan Walker-Harris.

Neither team could find a winner after the interval but county town forward Ayunga was dismissed for two bookable offences.

Card happy Bristol referee Simon Knapp ended up dishing out five cautions to the hosts during a match that hardly had a bad challenge in it.

Dorchester wing-back Oakley Hanger has already shown an eye for goal this season and he had the first attempt of Saturday’s contest that was on target.

However, after good work from Ben Watson down the right-hand side, Hanger’s left-foot shot was rather tame and visiting keeper Glyn Garner gathered easily.

Soon after, Ayunga, who it was announced before kick-off had signed an extended contract with the Magpies, went close with a header from a corner.

The home side’s back three of Nathan Walker, Matt Oldring and player-manager Mark Jermyn were relatively untroubled by the Centurions in the early stages, with the visitors’ main threat coming from corners.

And it was at the other end of the pitch that the opening goal was scored.

Watson just failed to connect properly with Bradley Tarbuck’s cross but when the ball dropped to Smeeton the skipper took one touch and buried his shot past Garner.

The keeper was given no chance as the Magpies’ captain netted his first goal of the season.

While Smeeton was having success with Ayunga down the left, Hanger continued to get forward as much as possible on the opposite flank.

On one such occasion Aidan Bennett was forced into a foul on Hanger which earned the former a yellow card.

Home gloveman Walker-Harris had very little to do in the opening half an hour bar flying to his right to catch a long-range attempt from Alex Pritchett.

Walker-Harris was called into action again eight minutes before the break and this time he got it all wrong.

Cirencester striker Griffin appeared to be chasing a lost cause as Walker tried to shepherd the ball back to his keeper near the by-line.

But when Griffin got in front of Walker and nicked the ball away from Walker-Harris the Dorchester number one was drawn into making a challenge and he ended up tripping the Cirencester man.

Griffin dusted himself down and coolly dispatched the spot-kick to make it 1-1.

It could have got even better for the Centurions soon after when defender Ben Brown met a corner at the back post but Walker-Harris gathered on the line.

Bristol official Knapp then levelled things up in terms of cautions, though Ayunga could consider himself very unlucky to be carded for a purely accidental collision with Gethin Jones.

The hosts thought they had regained the lead six minutes into the second period.

Smeeton put Ayunga clean through on goal as the visitors’ defence seemed to go walkabout.

The youngster wasn’t flagged for offside initially but that appeared to be the linesman’s verdict after the centre forward had squared the ball to Watson and he had tapped it into an empty net.

A couple more good chances then fell the way of the county town side.

First, a cross-field ball from Oldring found Hanger and his header was tipped around the post by Garner, who was also quick to deny Lewis Morgan.

There then followed a mad quarter of an hour when five players were booked, including Ayunga for a second time in the tie.

His afternoon was brought to an abrupt end when he caught James Mortimer-Jones slightly late and had to leave the field with 17 minutes left.

Jermyn for one was far from enamoured with the referee’s decision and he earned himself a caution for protesting too vociferously.

Cirencester’s Jones and Dorchester’s Oldring and Walker were also given yellows as the official began to lose control of proceedings.

The football threatened to take a back seat to all the name-taking, and in the closing stages it was the Centurions that went closest to winning it.

Substitute Ollie Knight nearly snatched a winner in injury-time but his shot went just past Walker-Harris’ left-hand post.

The sides will do it all again at the Corinium Stadium on Tuesday night.

Magpies: Walker-Harris, Hanger, Smeeton, Jermyn, Oldring, Walker, Davis (Martin 65), Morgan, Ayunga, Watson, Tarbuck. Subs not used: Murphy, Crittenden, Brookes, Ross.

Cirencester: Garner, Jones (Knight 80), Pritchett, Brown, Hooper (Kotwica 70), Henry, Herring, Mortimer-Jones, Griffin (Parsons 73), Langworthy, Bennett. Subs not used: Dunton.

Bookings: Magpies – Ayunga (foul, 44, 73), Jermyn (dissent, 73), Oldring (dissent, 79), Walker (foul, 82)

Cirencester – Bennett (foul, 22), Jones (foul, 76)

Sent off: Magpies – Ayunga (two bookable offences, 73)

Referee: Simon Knapp (Bristol)

Attendance: 320