Romsey Town were unceremoniously dumped out of this season’s Wessex League Cup by local rivals Totton & Eling in another smash and grab match at the Bypass Ground on Saturday.

For the fourth Cup competition in a row, Town found themselves drawn against higher league opposition and this time there was the additional spice of the return of former Town manager Wayne Mew, who is now in charge of Totton and Eling. As in their previous games Romsey came out of the blocks quickly and after just three minutes could have taken the lead when Pedro Carvalho headed narrowly over from a delicious Ryan Merrick cross from the left.

Merrick himself then had an effort go wide, while skipper Dom Collicott, Carvalho and Indrit Elezi all had chances to put Town up within the first fifteen minutes.

As so often this season, Romsey were to rue those missed opportunities as Totton & Eling took the lead in the 22nd minute with their first meaningful attack.

Romsey failed to clear the ball, which pinged around their six-yard box before being stabbed home from close range.

Despite this setback, Town responded, and within three minutes had levelled when the impressive Carvalho turned his marker inside out before firing home from just outside the box.

It was again all Romsey, who saw a Josh Harvey header superbly saved by Totton & Eling keeper Nathan Goodger and then saw Goodger pull off three further excellent saves from Harvey again, Collicott and Elezi.

In the 40th minute Totton re-took the lead, totally against the run of play, when Town failed to clear their lines from a set piece.

Harvey had a great chance to equalise right on the verge of half time but saw his header clear the bar.

From the resulting goal kick Town inexplicably switched off and conceded a third as the referee blew for the interval.

A stunned large home attendance saw Town start the second half in the same manner as the first.

Romsey were by far the better side playing the more controlled and assured football and really should have pulled a goal back when Elezi fired wide. On 55 minutes Town somehow managed to miss a great chance when Elezi’s initial shot landed at the feet of Carvalho, who fired against the post.

Dale Hansford couldn’t convert the rebound from no more than two yards out as the ball came off his knee and fell back to Carvalho, who fired over.

It was symptomatic of Town’s luck in front of goal, but to their immense credit they kept going and were rewarded for their endeavour on 70 minutes when Hansford’s fierce shot was again well saved by Goodger but Carvalho slotted home the rebound as the keeper failed to hold on to the ball.

Romsey threw everything at Totton in the last few minutes but found themselves up against a keeper in inspired form.

With 90 minutes on the clock Town almost took the game into extra time when Carvalho’s header from a Josh Ramsey free-kick was cleared only as far as Ramsey who watched in despair as his first time shot just went wide, leaving the final score at 2-3.

A stunned James Phillips was left to reflect on what could have been.

“I’m gutted for the lads,” he said. “Again today they’ve not got the rewards they deserve from this game.

“The lads know we need to be far more clinical and ruthless up top and much more aggressive in our defending at the back, but it’s difficult to be too critical of a team that perform with such commitment. “This season is about re-building for the future and once again the lads have shown we have a lot of quality in this performance. “Once we get a settled side and address and tweak some areas that we know need addressing and tweaking, the results will come.

“I wish Wayne and Totton all the best in the next round but I’m sure he knows that we gave him a real game and if we’d taken our chances it would have been a different story”