Matt Giles' men made FA Cup history for Easington Sports yesterday despite a 3-0 defeat at the hands of high flying Cirencester Town FC. This was the first time Sports have made it through to the First Qualifying Round and despite a sprited performance, they were no match for their dominant hosts who comprised of a side full of Southern Premier and Southern league quality.

To their credit, Easington were tactically very good in the first half, setting up to limit the space in the defensive third and this frustrated Cirencester for much of the first half. Adam Doyle made 3 very good reflex saves to thwart Josh Parsons in a half which the home side dominated possession.

Just as it was looking like Sports' would go in at half time still in contention, Ben Whitehead showed his class and spun Bradley Cox in one quick touch before shooting low into the bottom corner past Adam Doyle to make it 1-0 with just five minutes to go.

Corinium Stadium has a fantastic 3G pitch and this made all of the difference to the game... Defending for both sides had to be foot perfect and unfortunately within seconds of the restart, Easington found themselves 2-0 as Cirencester were first to a half clearance on the edge of the box. Such is the quality of the surface, the former Weston Super-mare striker Ben Whitehead, was the first to the rebound from a blocked shot from Parsons and he was able to strike the ball cleanly first time from the edge of the box into the top corner of the net.

The Easington management team reacted quickly and send on Hammond, Dark and Fountain to add more attacking options for Sports. Dark showed good confidence on debut and pace to break into the box to show low towards the near post which Ale Harris did well to tip round the post. Matt Hammond also offered threat working the channels well which brought Adam Taylor into the game out wide on the right.

A shift to a more attacking formation brought a brief spell of pressure for Sports. Harvey Billings started to influence the game from midfield with some well weighted balls in behind the Ciren defence and from set plays. It was from one of Billings' corners that Easington had their best chance of the game. A driven corner into the box was well met by Bradley Cox but his header hit the far post and went out for a goal kick.

Cirencester were again more dominant in the final stages and scored a third goal to put the game out of sight for Sports. Levi Irving climbed well on the far post to head home from a corner to make sure of the result (see photo courtesy of Graham Hill twitter feed).

Clearly the best side won on the day but Sports can be very positive about the performance defending very well for long periods of the game against a side that is clearly going to be in contention for promotion come the end of the season.