Dereham Town turned to cup action this weekend but could not change their recent run of results as they suffered suffer defeat to a very good Halesowen Town side in the extra preliminary round of the Buildbase FA Trophy.

FA Trophy extra preliminary round

Dereham Town 1 Halesowen Town 2

Dereham Town turned to cup action this weekend but could not change their recent run of results as they suffered suffer defeat to a very good Halesowen Town side in the extra preliminary round of the Buildbase FA Trophy.

Dereham got off to a good start, opening the scoring in the sixth minute when a Rhys Logan corner from the left was kept around the box by Smith, finding it's way back to Logan on the right. His cross was half blocked and fell to Matthews on the edge of the box who rifled his half volley back past Catlow.

From this moment Halesowen took more control of the game, with Sammons forcing a smart save from Pride after a short free-kick on 19 minutes. The equaliser the visitors deserved came a few minutes later, with Yates delivering a cross from deep on the right. The ball was allowed to bounce by the home defence and Gibson lifted the ball smartly over Pride.

The second half kicked off in a torrential downpour and it took a few minutes before either team could settle. Once the conditions abated Halesowen took a hold of the game, creating good chances for Molyneux and Bunn, but found Dickerson and Pride in good form to deny them.

Both teams pushed forward to look for the winner and the game became more stretched. Unfortunately for the Magpies it was the Halesowen subs that made the difference with five minutes to go. Josh Hawker turned on the left hand side and played fellow substitute Lewis Wright through on the right hand side. He rushed onto the through ball and finished smartly passed Pride to give the visitors the lead.

Halesowen managed to see out the final five minutes despite a big push by the hosts and progress to the first qualifying round. For Dereham it is back to league action next Saturday and a visit to high flying Coggeshall Town.

Dereham Town: Pride, Frary, Imre (Dickerson 18), Linford (Crisp 69), Wones, Matthews, Logan, Smith (McQuaid 69), Hilliard, Hinton, Hipperson.

Halesowen Town: Catlow, Ashmore, Bowen, Sammons (Hawker 78), Piggott, Parsons, Hewitt, R. Bunn, Gibson, Yates (Wright 83), Molyneux (Lucas 66). Subs not used: McCone, B.Bunn