Bourne Town are beaten by Aylestone Park in the FA Cup
Bourne bowed out of the FA Cup after falling at the first hurdle in Saturday's extra preliminary round clash with Aylestone Park.
Their Leicestershire visitors secured a narrow one-goal victory after an entertaining tie between two well-matched sides.
Bourne went into the clash buoyed by a 5-0 midweek win over Wisbech Town in the United Counties League Premier Division North.
Visiting Aylestone were always going to provide a much tougher challenge after reaching the Premier Division South play-offs last season.
It was also a clash of two teams who had won the United Counties League Division One title in the past couple of seasons with Bourne following up Aylestone's success in 2022/23 by winning the title last term.
Bourne were again without last season's top goalscorer James Hill-Seekings while skipper Robbie Ellis was also sidelined.
A lively start saw both sides probing for an early opening with Bourne going on to create the better openings.
Zak Munton found himself in a good position but didn't get enough lift on his attempted lob over Josh Wormleighton and the Aylestone goalkeeper was able to claw away his shot.
Brad Marshall headed narrowly over from the resultant corner while Sam Preston needed to produce a superbly-timed last-ditch challenge to thwart Zak Allen after a swift Bourne break.
Allen was denied again moments later by a smart stop from Wormleighton while Evandro Sanches was inches away at the other end from converting a dangerous cross by Andres Articolo.
Justin Pearce glanced a header wide of the home goal while Charlie Young saw a fierce strike brilliantly blocked by the home rearguard.
Bourne's best chance of the goalless first half fell to Munton when he dragged his shot wide of the far post after being played in by Will Bird.
Both sides continued to create openings after the break with Marshal Keenan curling a shot narrowly over for the visitors while Allen was denied by another timely tackle from Joel Wolfe.
Marshall made a crucial covering challenge to prevent Sam Hollis from breaking clear while home goalkeeper Dan Swan turned away a well-struck effort from Wolfe.
Munton curled in an inviting free-kick which drifted agonisingly wide of the far post with none of the home team able to get that all-important final touch.
Swan then had to be alert when former Stamford midfielder Jake Duffy tried to catch out the home goalkeeper with a quickly-taken free kick which he safely gathered.
Aylestone then found what would prove to be the match-winning breakthrough with 18 minutes of the match remaining.
Marshall had again been superb at the heart of the Bourne defence but his miscontrol allowed Corey Armeni to pounce and fire home past the exposed Swan.
The visitors could have wrapped up the win as substitute Pearson Mwanyongo weaved an opening only to see his shot hit the post.
Swan finger-tipped another effort to safety before making a crucial stop to thwart Armeni at close range when he was well placed to double Aylestone's lead.
It kept Bourne in the contest and they piled forward in the latter stages looking for the elusive equaliser.
They were unable to force the ball home after a mass scramble in the box while Shaun Archer saw a sweet strike saved by Wormleighton.
Richard Jones had a header blocked from the resultant corner while substitute Jack Wilson planted a free header wide as Bourne were beaten at home for the second successive Saturday.
There was a sense of déjà vu about this reversal as it had so many similarities to the defeat against AFC Mansfield seven days earlier.
Bourne again had good chances to get something out of the game but were punished for their one major mistake at the back in an otherwise sound defensive display.
There's no doubt that Bourne will be absolutely fine at step five this season following their promotion but they need to make sure they start turning those fine margins in games in their favour.
