NORTHWICH Victoria exited the FA Cup in heartbreaking circumstances yesterday.

After equalising late in the day against Charnock Richard at Wincham Park to make the score 2-2 after 90 minutes, Steve Wilkes’ side were on the wrong end of a 5-4 penalty shoot-out defeat.

Saul Henderson had pulled Vics level after a Carl Grimshaw penalty and a Daniel Regan goal had turned things round after Matty Birchall gave the hosts the lead after just three minutes.

However, Louis Potts and goalkeeper Mike Hale both missed penalties as Charnock won the shoot-out – bringing back memories of their FA Vase semi-final loss to Chertsey Town in a similar manner last year.

That competition is next up for Wilkes’ side as Golcar United await on Saturday.

It opens another door as this one closes, but the manager believes his side did not do themselves justice in this game.

“We know it’s a lottery – we went out of the FA Vase in the semis to it a couple of years ago,” he said.

“You won’t hear me having a go at anyone who stood up and missed.

“We didn’t really come out in the second half.

“We had a bit of a go at them at half time as we hadn’t really played well, but the first 10 minutes of the second half were shocking.

“We gave a silly penalty away which we didn’t need to do, and that gets their tails up to go and get another one.

“Fair play to us, we came back and finished strong but the players need to start doing what we ask them to do.

“We didn’t do the basics right – if we’d have done that, we’d have been comfortable.”