AS IF 90 minutes in the baking sun at Fawcett's Field wasn't enough, Lymington and New Milton have to try all over again in the FA Cup, following their 1-1 draw with Sittingbourne, writes Andy Starmore.

The Linnets may live to regret what was a great opportunity to knock out a side that play two divisions higher, having enjoyed the lions share of possession and chances.

And given that the Kent side took five and a quarter hours to get to the New Forest and arrived at the ground with just 20 minutes to go to kick off, the opportunity to exploit what must have been a tired and miserable outfit was lost.

Despite the opponents playing in the Southern League Eastern Division, Linnets manager Ian Robinson was disappointed that a creditable draw was all that his team achieved in a game he thought was there for the taking.

"We should have won that and let's just hope we don't reflect on that on Tuesday night," said Robinson.

"It was within our capabilities to do it today but I don't feel we played to our full potential.

"I don't know whether they've got anything else to offer though and if we've seen the best of them, they haven't seen the best of us yet."

Robinson was clearly disappointed with the way things turned out but has hardly thrown the towel in, with what should be an interesting replay against a side who are not playing the best football in the world, currently sitting in bottom place in their league.

Robinson added: "It was a baking hot day and several of our players have under-performed today.

"We made some good chances but we didn't convert them and that's a little bit worrying.

"You think to yourself what might have been but, we're still in it and all we can do now is go there and give a good account of ourselves.

"We're going to have to play better than we did today because it's not going to be easy to go all the way up there and sort them out.

"I feel really disappointed and I can't help feeling like that.

"The opening few minutes of a match that was watched by a hugely disappointing crowd was one-way traffic in the Linnets favour, so it was a shock when the visitors took the lead after 13 minutes.

Paul Towler was adjudged to have brought down a Sittingbourne forward and Tom Benny stepped up to take the awar-ded penalty, firing low to Mark Watson's right for a one goal lead.

The New Foresters immediately put more pressure on the visitors goal but, even after a succession of corners, they were still unable to break through with a leveller they fully deserved.

And Towler had to come to the rescue at the back for the Linnets as well, when he cleared the ball off the line from a header by Shane Campbell, preventing the Kent outfit from doubling their lead.

That would have been a very unjust scoreline and when Darren Curtis latched on to a rebound off Kevin Fewell in the Sittingbourne goal to make it 1-1 on the stroke of half time it was a much more true reflection of the afternoon's proceedings.

Robinson's outfit were the better side in the opening half but not by a big distance.

The second period started off in explosive fashion though and Lymington began to bombard the Sittingbourne defence.

Michael Jackson saw a header saved by Fewell, Jimmy Sheppard watched his long range shot whistle wide and Paddy James, with his first touch after coming on, almost scored.

James' effort was saved by Fewell but as the ball came back into play Mark Clothier tried his luck but again saw his powerful effort flash wide.

At this stage it just looked like it was simply a matter of time before they would take a lead they so richly deserved.

But when Darren Crook headed against the crossbar from an excellent cross by Paddy James, it was almost a sign to say that it was not to be their day.

And now, if the Linnets are going to emulate what they achieved in this competition last season, when they reached the fourth qualifying round, a 10-hour round trip to Sittingbourne and back, with 90 minutes or more of frantic cup act-ion sandwiched in between is an obstacle they have yet to get over.

Linnets: Watson, Carter, Reacord, Towler, Sheppard, Curtis, K.James (P James 51), Clothier, Jackson, Crook (Anderson 60), Thomson (T Smith 78). Unused sub: Collinge.