A good effort but Morpeth Town knocked out of FA Cup by National League North side
A stunning Dom Dos Santos Martins strike proved the highlight as Morpeth Town exited the FA Cup.
The former Luton Town youngster had been embroiled in a tough battle against a physical National League North Southport in the middle of the park for long periods.
But in the final minute he spun his man around 22 yards out, drove forward and smashed an unstoppable drive high into the net.
Seeing Nic Bollado, Liam Miller and Sam Hodgson return from injury for cameos from the bench also lifted the Craik Park supporters.
Josh Robson, however, will now face a suspension after being sent off for dissent following two yellow cards as he hotly contested decisions by the officials.
“I thought the shape was good in the first half, exactly what we wanted, but there were two key moments with two shots on target and they’ve scored both of them,” said boss Craig Lynch.
Luke James provided much of the Morpeth threat in the opening period with his neat touches and probing play, but the amber and blacks went behind in the 34th minute as the ball broke to Jordan Slew and he stroked a neat finish into the bottom corner.
He was at it again just before the break as Morpeth lost the ball cheaply and he created himself a yard of space to drill home low inside the near post.
“When they’ve got players like they have, you’ve got to do more to try and stop the shots; we haven’t done enough and that’s been the difference,” continued Lynch.
“You can’t say they’ve been miles better than us. We changed things up in the second half and we’ve just been sucker-punched by poor officiating. The linesman gave a goal-kick and the referee has over-ruled him and gave a corner, when it never was.”
Southport took it short and when the ball was floated into the box, Tom Moore powered in a close-range header for the third.
Lynch added: “The game’s killed off at 3-0, but the positives are we kept going to the end and put balls into the box.”
Morpeth went close as James skilfully lobbed over a centre and Hodgson’s bullet header was well saved by diving keeper Chris Renshaw.