IT ultimately ended in a 4-1 defeat at Torquay United, but Winchester City will forever cherish memories of their 2018/19 FA Cup run.

After seeing off Bournemouth Poppies, Frome, Merthyr and Cirencester, it took a very good Gulls side to finally burst City’s Cup bubble in front of a 2,202 crowd at Plainmoor yesterday.

Torquay’s recent demise means they currently operate just two tiers above City in the National League South but, in reality, the gulf is far wider.

To put it into context, Bristol City loanee Connor Lemonheigh-Evans, who doubled the Gulls’ account after Kalvin Kalala and Saikou Jennah had finally broken City down, had scored a brace in midweek for Wales Under-21s against Switzerland.

“The journey back was a good chance to reflect on what we’ve done,” said City boss Craig Davis.

“We were far from disgraced against a very good side. If Torquay don’t finish top-two this season, I’ll be amazed.

“It was a brilliant occasion against a full-time outfit, a big club, in front of a decent crowd.

“We put in a really good shift for the first 30 minutes and kept things tight, but one deflected goal opened us up. Then we had a slip just afterwards and then straight away they scored a third.

“They blew us away in the space of eight minutes or so.”

Torquay struck again ten minutes into the second half but, to City’s immense credit, they rallied superbly and even got a goal as a memento of the big occasion -  Joe Hayward striking from the penalty spot after Oli Bailey had been tugged back by the keeper.

Unluckily for Hayward, his afternoon ended prematurely when he was sent off for a second yellow on 79 minutes.

Davis said: “I couldn’t be prouder of the lads. At four down we could have capitulated, but it says a lot about the group that we didn’t.

“Our travelling fans were fantastic and we got a standing ovation from both sets of supporters on the way in, which was much appreciated.

"We enjoyed the dream while it lasted.”

City must come back to earth on Tuesday when they travel to AFC Totton in the Evo-Stik Division One South (7.45pm).

"It's both a bad game and a good one," said Davis. "Being a derby, it's not run-of-the-mill.

"Maybe we could have done with a week off after yesterday, but we do need to get going again in the league."

City should have Matt Benham and Rob Carr back available.