Proud Scarborough boss Jonathan Greening hailed his players’ fortitude after they pushed EFL outfit Forest Green all the way again in a third meeting of the teams in this season’s FA Cup.

The first-round tie was ordered to be replayed after Forest Green had been found guilty of failing to inform the FA they had received permission to play a loan player against the National League North outfit.

Scarborough were only denied victory in the original tie by a stoppage-time equaliser, before going down 5-2 at Forest Green in the replay.

But this latest contest – a one-off rematch in North Yorkshire – saw Scarborough take an early lead and later reduce the deficit to 3-2 courtesy of a Luca Colville effort before sub Matty Stevens wrapped up a 4-2 triumph.

Greening said: “They came up here the day before and stayed in a hotel, whereas our players were up at 7am for work this morning and only got here an hour before kick-off, so that’s the difference in preparation for the game.

“But I thought the lads put in another really strong performance. We deservedly took the lead and we hit the post and could have had a penalty before we had them rocking at 3-2.

“Unfortunately, one mistake meant we ended up losing 4-2. Over the course of the three games, though, we have played five really good halves of football against a strong League Two team. There was only the first half at their place when we were 3-1 down that needed to be better.”

Forest Green boss David Horseman was pleased with his team’s clinical display, having failed to net in five of their previous six games, discounting the two expunged cup contests.

“It’s no secret that we need to score more goals, so I’m delighted to get four,” he declared.

“It helped having Matty Stevens back off the bench and Callum Morton on the pitch. We know they will score goals, but they’ve just not been available to us.

“I don’t actually think we created lots of chances tonight and Scarborough have given us three really tough games, but we were clinical which is what we’ve been missing for most of the season.”

Scarborough boss Jonathan Greening was left to reflect on football’s ‘cruel’ side after his part-time team were denied an FA Cup upset against Forest Green in stoppage time.

An equaliser by Olly Sully – the 18-year-old sub’s first senior goal – secured a 1-1 draw for the League Two strugglers after the National League North outfit had taken a first-half lead through Alex Wiles.

It also cost the Seadogs a precious £41,000 windfall in prize money and Greening, a member of the Manchester United squad that won the 1999 Champions League final in stoppage time, lamented: “I really wish we could have held on and won the game.

“But it wasn’t to be and, sometimes, football can be cruel. The boys are absolutely devastated because they put an absolute shift in and I’m really proud of them.

“We’re a part-time team and might not have a lot of money as a club but we showed that we’ve got a lot of heart and we’ve just got to show the same work ethic, team spirit and passion now in the replay.”

Forest Green boss David Horseman threw on Sully in an attempt to lift a lacklustre and unimaginative performance from his team and was delighted to see the teenager get on the scoresheet.

He said: “We were really poor. We gave a bad goal away and then had to break down an 11-man block, which we found difficult.

“But we did it in the end because some people stood up to the challenge of a difficult game and I’m really proud of Olly.

“It was brilliant to see somebody from our academy keep us in the FA Cup and help us live to fight another day.”