Lloyd Irish stepped out of retirement to put in a heroic goalkeeping performance to help see Taunton Town through to the first round proper of the FA Trophy.

The goalkeeper had stepped back from his playing role this season to focus on being vice president of the club, but had to step in as Adam Parkes was unavailable.

Irish made a string of good saves in the second half to preserve Taunton Town’s 1-0 lead given to them in the first half by Jayden Nielsen.

Manager Richard Luffman made five changes to the starting XI which played against Amersham Town in the FA Cup last weekend as Lloyd Irish, Opi Edwards, Toby Down, Jayden Nielsen and Jack Matthews all came in for Adam Parkes, Ollie Woodhouse, Jake Hodgson, Harris Feltham and Aysa Corrick.

The game started with both sides trying to create opportunities and very much cancelling each other out and it was the visitors who created the first real chance as new Taunton signing Jack Matthews committed a foul just outside the box and a free kick was swung in but headed over.

The first sign of goal for Taunton Town was when Matthews hit a long raking pass out of defence to the right wing, Eddie Jones did well to get to it and hit a cross into the box, it found Opi Edwards but he couldn’t guide his effort on target.

Five minutes later Owen Brain cut inside from the right but his low shot was saved comfortably.

Taunton Town took the lead on 27 minutes when Jayden Nielesen combined nicely with Tom Smith on the edge of the box and Nielsen curled one first time and found the corner of the net.

Eight minutes later Opi Edwards had a guilt-edged chance to increase the lead as the ball was pulled back to him in the box but he could not guide it on target.

Basingstoke Town made a slick break four minutes before the break as Liam Ferdinand broke clear before pulling it back to Nnamdi Nwachuku who touched it to Ben Cook but his effort went high over the bar.

Basingstoke Town made two changes at half time and the second half was all about the visitors trying to force an equaliser.

The first of Lloyd Irish’s big saves was on 49 minutes when the visitors got in behind the Taunton defence but the veteran goalkeeper saved the shot.

Five minutes later, Nwachuku got into the box and hit a low shot, but Irish was equal to it.

With 20 minutes to go, Basingstoke were camped in the Taunton Town half and Liam Ferdinand had a chance when he turned on the edge of the box but Irish was equal to his shot again.

Luffman made four changes at this point with Harris Feltham, David Duru, Alfie Moulden and Ollie Woodhouse all coming on.

In the final 10 minutes, Basingstoke had a number of chances, with substitute Dan Ware first drawing Irish into a save with his feet and a minute later had a claim for a penalty turned down by the referee.

On the stroke of full time, Lloyd Irish produced heroics again as George Reid got in down the left hand side for Basingstoke but his shot was saved spectacularly by Lloyd Irish.

With that, the final whistle blew and Taunton Town go through to the FA Trophy first round proper.