Stafford Rangers 1 Tamworth 0 - Report and pictures

Boss Neil Kitching hopes his side can build on the second round victory, which came courtesy of an Izak Reid goal, and an encouraging midweek display.

“It was a fantastic win for the club,” he said. “I said in the week I wanted to go on a bit of a run in the FA Cup and that is the first time in 10 years we have made it past this stage so I’m pleased with that. But I’m more pleased with the performance. I saw some bright sparks on Tuesday night at Warrington. We were unlucky then but today I thought we were magnificent making sure our shape was right, and not allowing them to get on the ball early and cause us a problem. We also held our shape in good positions and tried to counter attack when we didn’t have the ball.”

Rangers had the better of the game and could have gone ahead as early as the 10th minute when the club’s top scorer Dan Westwood fired his effort just over the bar.

He would get another chance just before the interval when his glancing header just dipped wide of the goal.

The visitors’ best chance fell to Callum Powell but he hit his shot straight at home keeper Adam Whitehouse who gathered the ball comfortably. The only goal of the game came just after the hour mark. Osebi Abadaki beat his man before crossing the ball to find Reid who saw his bullet header hit the back of the net via the crossbar.

There was a bizarre moment when Louis Briscoe was asked to kick the ball back to the Lambs keeper only for the ball to end up in the back of the net. It was disallowed by the referee and Briscoe was booked.