Shildon 1 Altrincham 0.

A last minute goal by Cameron Fenton earned Shildon one of the shock results of the round when they beat Altrincham at Dean Street on Saturday.

It looked as if Altrincham – who have reached the competition proper over thirty times in their history -- would take the Railwaymen back to Cheshire for a Tuesday night replay, until a dramatic finish to the game.

Altrincham defender James Jones was penalised for deliberately handling the ball inside his area as he challenged Adam Burnicle, and after the defender was red carded, Billy Greulich-Smith’s penalty was parried by keeper Anthony Thompson, but Fenton was first to react and headed in the rebound.

“I’m very proud of the lads that they beat a team that contained so many good players,” said manager Danny Moore. “I thought we deserved to win because we were the better team.

“In the last half hour, only one team wanted to win, and Altrincham couldn’t deal with us. Our homework paid off. We kept the game tight for the first hour, and for the last thirty minutes we really stretched them. We went for the win because we didn’t fancy travelling for a Tuesday replay, we even took off two midfielders and put on two attackers.

“I don’t mind who we play now, but if I wanted to choose for the lads, it would be somewhere like York or Stockport away.

“But from a club point of view, we’d like to go as far as we can, and hope that we draw one of the lowest ranked clubs left in the competition so then we have a chance of getting to the fourth qualifying round.”

Shildon were determined not to concede an early goal in the opening stages, and by and large they succeeded, with keeper Nick Liversedge only making a couple of saves.

Billy Greulich-Smith had an effort saved by the Altrincham keeper near half time, and as the game wore on, Shildon came more into the game. They had a goal harshly disallowed for a foul on the keeper, and then they had their moment of glory at the end which puts them into the third qualifying round for the second time in four seasons, and another £4,500 in prize money into the bank.

Shildon are joined in today’s draw by Northern League colleagues Newcastle Benfield, who beat Ashton United 2-1, but Sunderland RCA were beaten 2-0 at Scarborough Athletic.