Southport battled their way through to the fourth round of the Buildbase FA Trophy after surviving a Spennymoor onslaught to win 5-4 on penalties.

Glen Taylor fired the Moors ahead on 9 minutes with a driven free-kick.  But The Sandgrounders were on level terms 6 minutes later as Mo Ali converted with a free header from a crossed free-kick.

Spennymoor dominated the second half and saw Mark Anderson’s deflected strike put them back in the driving seat, but a late error from Dale Eve allowed substitute George Newell to tap home an equaliser and take the game to penalties.

Stephen Thompson’s energy caused early problems for Southport.  He drove through the heart of their defence and drew a trip out of Antwi.  Taylor despatched the free kick with a thunderous drive under the wall and into the bottom right corner.

Minutes later, a coming together between James Curtis and Jordan Archer resulted in a free kick 40 yards from the Spennymoor goal.  Jack Doyle took full advantage with a pin-point delivery for Mo Ali to plant a header past Eve from 8 yards.

Taylor almost doubled his tally on half-hour after a delicious Moors move.  Thompson’s dink into the “D” was kept in the air by Ramshaw for Taylor to volley just over the bar.

Sandgrounders’ captain David Morgan went to ground in the centre circle, accusing Mark Anderson of a headbutt.  But Mr Urwin saw no wrongdoing.

It was Anderson who eventually fired Moors back ahead on just after the restart.  He showed great desire to get to a scuffed clearance and his shot was deflected over McMillan from 18 yards.

Spennymoor should have been out of sight in the 15 minutes that followed.  Taylor, Hall and Thompson all spurned golden opportunities inside the Southport penalty area.

But if you don’t take your chances, you will get punished.  A looping delivery from the right tempted Dale Eve to come through the bodies to claim, but he failed to hold the ball and Newell was left with a tap-in in the six-yard box to send the game to penalties.

Moors centre back Joe Tait missed what would have been the game winning penalty to take it to sudden death, before Connor Woods placed his into the top left and Ben McKenna skied Spennymoor’s first sudden death penalty to send Southport into the fourth round.