Bradford Park Avenue bowed out of the FA Cup in brave circumstances with a 3-1 first round loss at League One high-flyers Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.
Rovers, 74 places higher up the football pyramid, took a 27th-minute lead through Martin Woods.
Nine minutes later, Doncaster doubled their advantage following neat play by Billy Paynter that left Iain Hume with the simple task of finding the net from just a yard or so out.
But brave Avenue then set up the possibility of at least a draw when Richard Marshall’s exquisite curled strike from 20 yards cut Doncaster’s two-goal advantage in half.
That strike came 11 minutes after the break and Marshall then had another long-range effort charged down during a spell that saw the visitors firmly in the ascendancy.
Substitute Tom Greaves then wriggled free inside the Doncaster penalty area only to shoot wide before Martin Drury wasted a similarly promising position by making a hash of a cross after being played in down the left by the impressive Paul Walker.
Sadly for the noisy 400 or so travelling fans, Drury’s wasteful delivery was followed just 60 seconds later by a bullet header from Chris Brown that restored Doncaster’s two-goal lead.
Avenue captain James Knowles said: “The lads can be proud of what they did. But we are a hungry group and now we want to push on.
“We tend to be better in the second half of a season so if we can be anywhere near the play-offs at the halfway stage then we will have as good a chance as any.”
Doncaster’s reward for beating Avenue was a second round trip to Oldham Athletic.
Bradford City – who drew with Northampton Town on Saturday – will host Brentford in round three if winning their replay.
Sheffield United will entertain Port Vale while York will travel to Cambridge City or MK Dons if coming through their replay with AFC Wimbledon.
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