RAMSBOTTOM United manager Mark Fell has challenged his players to replicate their impressive victory over Shaw Lane in the FA Trophy in their Evo-Stik North promotion push.

The Rams went into the cup encounter against the Evo-Stik Premier leaders on the back of two damaging league defeats that had seen them fall out of the play-off places.

But they raised the bar with two fantastic performances, drawing 2-2 away from home on Saturday before finally seeing off Shaw Lane 4-1 after extra time in front of their home fans on Tuesday night.

It was a really gutsy display over the two matches, with Fell's men digging deep after Shaw Lane scored a stoppage time equaliser to force the replay, then holding their nerve to level seven minutes from time on Tuesday night.

They were eventually rewarded for their effort, with Jerome Wright firing in a double to finally secure victory in extra time before Phil Dean added a fourth late on.

Fell said: "How about that. We said if we could keep things tight as we went into extra time, we could catch them.

"As we went into the last 15 minutes we thought we could win, and we did.

"We put in a really good performance against a full-strength Shaw Lane side sitting on top of a division above.

"We seem to compete much better against the higher teams.

"We have to take on the lower teams with the same consistency."

Rammy's reward for their cup heroics is an away draw at another Evo-Stik Premier side – Altrincham – in the second-qualifying round, with the tie being played on Saturday, November 11.

Before then they have a trip to the Yorkshire coast to take on fourth-placed Scarborough in the league on Saturday and a re-run of their first-round Integro League Cup tie at home to Stalybridge Celtic on Tuesday, when admission will be free after the initial tie was abandoned due to floodlight failure.

Quite how Rammy's players will cope with the busy schedule following their energy-sapping FA Trophy exploits is anyone's guess, but their confidence should be sky high after they more than held their own against a top Shaw Lane outfit.

They suffered an early blow in Saturday's match after Rod Orlando-Young put the home side in front on 14 minutes, but bounced back with goals from new signing Josh Heaton and Greg Daniels either side of half time.

They looked set to make it through at the first attempt before the referee pointed to the spot in stoppage time, somewhat harshly awarding the penalty for deliberate handball after a shot was blocked at close range.

Spencer Harris stepped up to secure the draw, much to the frustration of the visiting Rams contingent.

Despite the disappointment, Rammy began the replay positively, only to fall a goal behind in the 15th minute following Paul Clayton's flicked header.

Danny Taberner kept the home side in it with a flying one-handed save in the second half to keep out a Harris shot destined for the top corner.

Heathcote entered the fray with 10 minutes remaining and quickly prodded home the equaliser following a corner.

Both sides missed chances in the goalless first half of extra time before Wright put the Rams in front with a low shot that went in off the post and added another on the counter attack with five minutes remaining.

Dean then sealed the famous win with a curling shot.