Rangers' Wembley dream ended

Stafford Rangers' Wembley dream is over after they lost last night's thrilling FA Carlsberg Trophy third round replay 2-1 to Tamworth.

They were perhaps fortunate to only trail by two goals at the interval as Nick Wright and Chris Nurse struck in quick succession.

Tamworth almost took a second-minute lead. Wright eased through the Stafford defence and fired against the left-hand post. Daniel hooked away the rebound.

Daniel rescued his side again with a goalline clearance to deny Jake Sheridan.

In the 13th minute, Daniel stayed up in the home area after a free-kick and fired a low shot at Alex Cisak. Tamworth broke the deadlock in the 39th minute. Just as he did in the opening stages, Wright burst through, only this time he planted his low shot into the bottom corner.

The lead was doubled four minutes later. Former Albion defender Des Lyttle crossed from the right to the far post where Nurse headed home. In the second half, Rangers launched a fightback and kept up the pressure right until the final whistle. Olaoye had the ball in the back of the net but Damion Jarrett had handled in the build up.

Neil Grayson replaced David McNiven just after the hour mark and made his presence felt. Chances fell to Olaoye, Kevin Street and Jarrett but they all failed to hit the target.

Eventually the pressure was turned into a goal. Jarrett's free-kick was headed past Cisak by Sangare and Flynn forced the ball home at close range.

Tamworth: Cisak, Lyttle, Evans, Briscoe, Langdon, Sheridan (Ebdon, 80), Bampton, Nurse, Sheldon, Wright (Williams, 72), Reed (McAughtrie, 86). Unused subs: Law, Bains.

Stafford Rangers: Alcock, Flynn, Daniel, Sangare, Ingram, Jarrett, Draper, Street, Hazley (Hopkinson, 57), McNiven (Grayson, 62), Olaoye. Unused subs: Hathaway, Allen, Gibson.

Attendance: 571.