Four go into first-round hat

The best performance came from Hendon, who reached the first round in 2010 and were beaten at this stage last year. They fell behind at Conference North club Corby when Josh Moreman scored in the eighth minute.

Top marksman Greg Ngoyi, very much in form after a slow start to the season, levelled the scores seven minutes before the interval and Michael Murray struck the winner in the 64th minute.

A stormy ending to the game brought red cards for Elliott Charles and Corby’s Carl Piergianni but that could not spoil Hendon’s delight.

Hastings had the luck of the draw, facing Step 5 club Blackfield & Langley at home, and had an early fright before cruising to a 3-0 victory. The minnows missed a penalty after 16 minutes and paid the price when they fell behind two minutes later. Zac Attwood was the marksman after a Sean Ray header had been blocked on the line.

Bradley Goldberg made it 2-0 in the 26th minute to maintain his record of scoring in every round and player-manager Ray made sure with another header soon after half-time.

Teenage Crawley loanee Jonte Smith took his FA Cup goal tally into double figures as Met Police won 3-0 at South Park to reach the first round without playing a club higher than Step 5. They, too, had an early scare when Chris Smith hit a post. Howard Newton headed home in a scramble after 16 minutes and Jonte Smith scored at either end of the second half to give his side a chance of facing his parent club in the next round. The Met's celebrations are pictured by Andy Nunn.

East Thurrock have a second chance after a deflected Kris Newby free-kick eight minutes into added time earned them a 2-2 draw at Conference South club Chelmsford. Sam Higgins gave Rocks a 14th-minute lead in the all-Essex classh but David Bridges equalised just before the interval and when Kenny Clark put City ahead in the 90th minute it looked all over.

But Newby maintained Rocks’ hopes of reaching the first round for the second year in a row, though even after his late, late strike Chelmsford twice went close to a winner.

Two goals by Sean Marks in the first 15 minutes left Lowestoft facing an uphill struggle at Conference Premier Braintree and the dismissal of Jack Defty in the 25th minute made matters worse. But the Trawlerboys pulled one back shortly afterwards through Chris Henderson and would have been level before half-time had Joe Francis been able to convert a penalty.

His kick was saved and Pat O’Connor restored Braintree’s two-goal margin early in the second half. Michael Frew gave Lowestoft hope when he made it 3-2 with 12 minutes left but the ten men could not find an equaliser.

Bury Town were reduced to nine men by the second-half dismissals of Luke Ingram and Tom Bullard at Conference South side Dorchester and eventually went down 3-1. Charlie Clough’s seventh-minute strike was all that separated the teams until the 88th minute, when Nick Crittenden added another. Connor Hall gave the short-handed visitors a glimmer of hope in the 94th minute and there was time for another goal. But it came from Ben Watson for the hosts.