Following Saturday’s goalless draw in the Extra Preliminary Round of the FA Cup, Kidlington were forced to travel to the Seasiders in North Somerset to settle their fate in one of the world’s greatest footballing competitions.

So there they went, across to North Somerset, in order to fight for a spot in the Preliminary Round. However, it was an evening where Kidlington were no match for Clevedon, where contrasting performances from Saturday by the Greens ultimately knocked them out of the competition.

The game began in a similar fashion to the initial home fixture on Saturday, Clevedon starting the brighter, enjoying possession and forcing Kidlington to sit in. To their benefit though, Kidlington defended excellently up until where the deadlock was broken just seconds before halftime.

Rhys King’s effort was Kidlington’s only talking point from the first half who lacked any real threat towards goal, as the midfielder’s strike from 20 yards skimmed above the bar.

If you were to ask Brad Chalmers how he felt five minutes before the interval he’d say he was content with how things were considering it remained goalless. However with just 30 seconds to play Kidlington concede a freekick on the halfway line as King found himself booked. The home side took the lead from the following freekick, as a header back across the face of goal was bundled home. Kidlington went in a goal behind.

The second half soon came round and Kiddy made three changes in order to spice things up in the midfield and look to get a foothold in the game. For the opening minutes from the restart it did just that. The bolst in midfield enabled Kauan to pick the ball up and create his own danger, seeing his work rate earn the Greens corners but yet again lacked any serious threat towards goal.

A golden opportunity landed at the striker’s feet however, as Clevedon keeper played a ball out which fell to the path of Kauan, who calmly lifted a ball over a crowded box. To the Keeper’s credit, he magnificently tracked the ball and finger tipped over the bar.

Despite Clevedon’s strong performance in all aspects of the field, in black and white Kidlington were still in it as the score remained a single goal to the good. That was until the 90th minute of course, where Clevedon’s Number 11 pounced on a mix up at the back, beat Goalkeeper Charlie Barnett to the ball and taking out Number 11 in the proceedings. Penalty Clevedon.

Penalty set up by him, penalty scored by him. Clevedon were 2 goals to the good and through to the next round.

Kidlington huffed and puffed but simply the wall wouldn’t break for them. It was defeat in North Somerset.