TOP scorer Martin Paul took no consolation from his sixth goal of the season as Chippenham Town were dumped out of the FA Cup by Weymouth at Hardenhuish Park.

The summer signing from Newport County continued his September scoring spree with a first half equaliser, but a poor second half performance saw from Chippenham saw the visitors upset the form book to advance to the third qualifying round.

Paul was satisfied with his own contribution alongside an out-of-sorts Charlie Griffin, but was disappointed to see his side fall at the first hurdle.

He said: "You are always happy to score. Any centre forward who tells you he'd rather his team won and he didn't score is probably lying.

"But I'd rather we had a good result and my goal helped us do that. I don't take any real pleasure from scoring one goal in a 4-1 defeat.

"I didn't play tremendously well at Folkestone, but I felt I was better on Saturday. My touch was more assured and I thought I anticipated the goal well. Six in 12 games I'm fairly pleased with. A goal every other game is what I have averaged over the past five years."

The ex-Bristol Rovers frontman was disappointed with the way his side began the second half after enjoying the upper hand before the interval, but felt Weymouth's 55th minute penalty award was harsh.

He said: "It was difficult. We were conscious of trying to play the game at a high tempo, play the game at our pace and dictate the game to them rather than the other way around. We've come out for the second half, taken a quick throw-in and it has broken down and they've gone on to score from there.

"The penalty was about two yards outside the box and even their lads have admitted it, but the referee hasn't even consulted his linesman.

"But, even taking that into consideration, we were rubbish for ten or 15 minutes in the second half and, after that, we might as well have called the game off because we were never going to claw it back. In the end you can't argue with 4-1 and they could have beaten us by five or six."

A tired Paul admitted Saturday's game had been hard work for the home side, particularly after being forced to play the final 35 minutes with only ten men. He is hoping for some wet weather will soften the Hardenhuish Park pitch ahead of Saturday's game against Moor Green.

He said: "I don't know what is happening at the moment. We seem to have hot Saturdays and it is cold for the rest of the week. The pitch is rock hard and it was really tough out there. They gave us the run-around."

Manager Tommy Saunders had targeted a place in the first round proper of the FA Cup but Paul believes league results will count for far more than those achieved in the cup come the beginning of May.

He said: "We've just got to knuckle down and get back to the league now.

"I know some people at the club would have liked to have gone on and got a glamour game in the cup, but is that really as important as doing well in the league?

"You are tested over 42 games in the league. If you finish fifth from bottom or fifth from top, you deserve to. The cup games are just a one-off, a bit of a lottery."