CHRIS Knowles remained ice cool to convert a dubious second-half penalty and secure Bashley an FA Cup reprieve.

Then he admitted the New Forest outfit were just happy to get a second chance to progress to the third qualifying round with a replay at Fleet tomorrow night.

Bash were trailing 2-1 with 21 minutes to go when striker Mark Gamble was brought down by Fleet’s Chad Coombes and Knowles stepped up to level from the spot.

Johnnie Dyer had fired Fleet in front from close range early on, with Gamble equalising in the 39th minute after running on to Dominic Allen’s through ball and rounding the goalkeeper.

Darren Wheeler restored Fleet’s advantage with a 58th-minute penalty awarded after Gary Middleton had been harshly adjudged to have brought down Bradley Cann, before Knowles grabbed his fourth goal of the campaign to restore parity again.

Knowles, who increased his season’s goal tally to four, said: “We didn’t play very well.

“At the moment we’re a bit indifferent at home. We’re playing well away but at home we’re struggling.

“So, all in all, we were happy to get a draw because we weren’t very clinical.”

Knowles added: “Both penalties were a little bit dubious, but we were happy to get in the hat for the third qualifying round draw.

“Hopefully we can do the business at Fleet because we’ve been playing better away from home this season.

“And, although we lost 1-0 at Bedford in our last away match, if we can produce a performance like we did there, I’m sure we can get the result that will take us through.”

Striker Gamble is Bash’s top scorer with six goals and he’s cracked four in their last five games. With Tom Hill (five) and Knowles (four) also hitting the net regularly, Bash are getting a reputation for being involved in games with plenty of goals.

Knowles said: “In the past few years we’ve been quite defensive and solid at the back. We’ve worked on winning games 1-0.

“This season, we have gone the other way. We are scoring a few more goals, but conceding a few more as well, which we’ll be working hard to put right.”

Bashley: Elm, Smith, Oliver, Middleton, Whitley, Knowles, Hill, P Roberts (Maxwell 78), Allen, Gamble, Ferrett (T Roberts 63). Unused subs: Murray, Mitchell, Riley, Prodomo.