Taunton Town defeat Amersham Town in FA Cuo qualifying

The Peacocks were made to fight hard for their victory against the side from two steps below them in the third qualifying round of the FA Cup.

Second half goals from Tom Purrington and Morgan Lewis sealed the victory for Taunton in front of a bumper crowd of 833 at the Cygnet Health Care Stadium.

Taunton Town are now through to the fourth qualifying round where the teams from the National League all join in. If they are successful, they will go into the hat for the First round proper where sides from League Two and League One could be waiting for them.

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Manager Richard Luffman made a single change from the win over Marlow last time out, with Harris Feltham coming into the starting eleven for the cup-tied Jayden Nielsen. New signing Opi Edwards was on the bench.

The pattern of the game was set very early, as Amersham Town, who play in the Cherry Red Records Combined Counties Football League, sat in deep and looked to hit Taunton on the counter.

And that’s exactly what they did on 15 minutes. A cross-field pass was intercepted by Jake Tabor and he went running down the left – evading the challenges of Ollie Woodhouse and Jake Hodgson – before cutting in on his right foot to curl a beautiful effort past the dive of Adam Parkes.

For the rest of the first half Taunton struggled to break Amersham Town’s defence down and every time they committed players forward, the visitors looked to exploit the counter attack.

Tom Smith had a near post shot saved and Jake Hodgson header was also well blocked. Meanwhile Amersham Town had a goal disallowed for offside after one of their quick counter attacks.

Taunton Town were camped in the Amersham half in the second half and on 56 minutes they forced a spectacular save from visiting goalkeeper Xavier Comas Leon when he denied Jake Hodgson for the second time.

The Peacocks also hit the woodwork on a couple occasions but eventually on 66 minutes Taunton were level. The home side were camped around the Amersham Town box with various efforts blocked but eventually the ball fell to Tom Purrington in the box and he managed to force the ball home.

Tom Purrington celebrates (Image: Debbie Gould)

Four minutes later the turn around was complete. Alfie Moulden drove towards the penalty area and eventually cut it back to the edge of the area where Morgan Lewis showed composure to place a shot in the bottom corner, sending the Taunton Town fans wild.

For the rest of the game, Taunton Town looked to manage proceedings and a couple times managed to break away. One such time new signing Opi Edwards – who came on as a substitute – was through but was unable to beat the goalkeeper.

Taunton Town saw it out and will progress through to the fourth qualifying round.

Taunton team: Parkes, Jones, Woodhouse, Purrington, Smith, Brain, Hodgson, Moulden, Feltham, Lewis, Corrick. Subs: Edwards, Down, Duru, Griffin, Grubb, Poole, Naylor.