Football: MacKenzie keeps Kingstonian at bay

KINGSTONIAN BATTLED their way into last night's FA Cup third-round draw after holding Leyton Orient to a goalless draw on their Kingsmeadow pitch yesterday.

The Football Conference title-chasers were in fact denied a win only by the woodwork, which twice saved their Third Division opponents from east London. The hosts enjoyed the majority of possession throughout, and enjoyed a corner count of 10-2 in their favour.

The Orient goalkeeper, Chris MacKenzie, denied the Surrey side on countless occasions to take the match to a replay at Brisbane Road tomorrow week.

The best chance of the match came five minutes from the end, when Matt Crossley's shot hit the woodwork with MacKenzie beaten for the first time in the afternoon. However, the ball was hacked away to safety by the Orient captain, Dean Smith.

Kingstonian's talented teenage striker Gavin Holligan, who is due to join West Ham when his side's Cup run comes to an end, came on as a second- half substitute and worried Orient with his tricks and turns. But not even his efforts were enough to give the non-League team and their manager, the former Woking stalwart Geoff Chapple, the win they deserved.

The only non-League sides definitely through to the third round are Yeovil Town, who beat Northampton, and Southport. The Merseyside club, who reached Wembley in the FA Umbro Trophy last term, maintained their good cup-tie form by winning 2-1 at the Third Division promotion-chasers Mansfield Town.

A Dave Gamble penalty and a Brian Ross goal secured victory for Southport, whose 42-year-old player-manager Paul Futcher, once of Manchester City and Luton, played for over an hour as a substitute.

Stevenage Borough failed to duplicate last year's magnificent exploits in the Cup, when they eventually went out in a fourth-round replay at Newcastle. Their run was short-lived this season - a crushing 4-1 defeat at Lincoln City means they can now concentrate on the Conference and the Trophy.

Luton Town, knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Worthington Cup last week at Sunderland, tamely surrendered to the Football League's basement side, Hull City, at Kenilworth Road. Rob Dewhurst headed the winner for the Tigers.