FROME Town missed the chance to give their stuttering season a shot in the arm on Wednesday night when they were knocked out of the Southern League Challenge Cup at Larkhall Athletic.

The Robins started the campaign in good form but the defeat at the Larks was their fifth in a row.

Town were without a league game last weekend but resume their Southern League Premier Division programme on Saturday away at St Ives Town and coach Matt Bown said it would have been good to make the trip with a spring in their step.

“We needed a result really in midweek just to get the confidence going again heading back into the league. That is our bread and butter, so a win before the St Ives game would have been very handy,” said Bown.

“We had quite a few players out, I think seven first-team players were missing but hopefully the majority of them will be back on Saturday.

“We will have near enough a full squad, which is the first time we have been able to say that for a while and hopefully that makes a difference for us.

“We have lost the last five, although two of those have been in cup games. We weren’t overly disappointed about Wednesday night but it would have just been nice to get a win to give us a bit of a lift.

“It will be a tough game against St Ives but we do what we were at the start of the year.”

The Robins’ latest loss came via a penalty shoot-out after they and Division One South & West side Larkhall could not be separated.

After a goalless 90 minutes, the Larks edged through on penalties 6-5, although Frome had actually had the chance to win the match with a spot-kick in normal time but Mitchell Page saw his strike saved by the home keeper.

Bown added: “It wasn’t the best game, it was very scrappy. Both teams huffed and puffed but there was no real quality to it.

“We had a penalty 10 minutes from the end, which was a bit dubious. That should really have finished it off but it ended up going to penalties and we missed a couple and that was that.”