DESPITE breaking new ground this season with a best-ever run in the FA Cup, Albion Sports have missed a huge opportunity to raise the club’s profile even higher.

After beating Nelson, Newton Aycliffe and Barnolsdwick Town to reach to second qualifying round, their journey ended with a 4-0 home defeat by North West Counties League side Ashton Athletic.

Lions boss Kulwinder Sandhu said: “It just wasn’t meant to be, because if anything could go wrong that day it did.

“It started off badly because Joe Barden called me early morning to say that he was ill, he’d been up all night with a sickness bug. He’s my captain, a leader on the pitch and a big cornerstone of the side.

“When the game started Aran Basi had to come off after just five minutes. He’d had a bit of a hamstring injury but he’d been training all week. He looked very mobile and he declared himself fit so I went with it.

“It backfired because he pulled up so soon in the game. Without the skipper and Aran, another key player, we had to re-jig the whole side and we lost a bit of shape.

"They got a goal just before half time so we were still in it, but they scored three in five minutes in the second half.”

Ashton Athletic’s home tie against Vanarama National North outfit Chorley will be streamed live on the BBC website today. The kick off has been moved to 12:30pm to give the game maximum publicity.

A rueful Sandhu said: “I think they’ve picked that game because Ashton are one of the lowest-ranking clubs left in the competition so it probably would have been us – if we’d won.

“Ashton are a good side and we wish them well but at our best, with a full squad, I believe we could have beaten them.

"But that’s football, you never know what it’s going to throw up, and we’ve missed our big opportunity so all the best to Ashton, we’ll be supporting them.”