CHIPPENHAM Town were dumped out of the FA Trophy on penalties this week following a penalty shootout defeat to Ebbsfleet United.

Mike Cook’s men drew 1-1 in normal time after Tom Harrison’s injury-time goal cancelled out Rakish Bingham’s opener for Ebbsfleet.

With no extra time available, the second-round tie went straight to penalties.

Despite beating the same opposition 9-8 earlier this season in the FA Cup third qualifying round, Chippenham were unable to repeat the trick as they lost 4-2.

Cook’s men began the game brightly and had weak shouts for an early penalty waved away when Marlon Jackson went down in the second minute.

Jackson picked himself up after that disappointment and almost opened the scoring in the seventh minute, however, his shot was blocked.

Ross Stearn saw an audacious effort from a corner hit the side netting as the chances continued to fall the way of the visitors.

The first half morphed into a cagey affair, and there were no further chances until shortly before half-time.

Brad Ash - Town’s weekend match-winner - burst through on goal, but could not add to his tally and he put his one-on-one chance wide.

After the break, the chances continued to be sparse until substitute Bingham opened the scoring 10 minutes after his introduction.

With Chippenham’s luck appearing to have run out, Harrison rifled a fierce shot into the top corner in the 91st minute to rescue hopes of progression to the third round.

But with Joe Hanks’ penalty crashing against the bar, and Ebbsfleet netting all of their spot-kicks, Luke Russe could not afford to miss Chippenham’s fourth.

However, Russe’s penalty was saved and the Wiltshire outfit were out.