GOALKEEPING find Piotr Jacucha took centre stage as New Milton bowed out of the FA Vase at the hands of Buckland Athletic at Fawcett’s Field.

The teenager, making only his second appearance for the Wessex One club, pulled off a string of fine saves to prevent the Western League Premier Division high-fliers from running up a cricket score.

Jacucha, who is studying product design at Bournemouth University, was powerless to stop goals from Lloyd Gardner and Jared Lewington giving the visitors a 2-0 lead after 26 minutes.

But having been harshly judged to have upended Gardner, the Pole then dived full length to his right to keep out the winger’s firmly-struck penalty in the 37th minute.

Jacucha was unfortunate to concede a third after his stunning point-blank save had kept out Gavin Hammon’s close-range effort, only for the striker to net the follow up.

And while further goals from Hammon and Andy Robertson earned Buckland a deserved victory, Linnets boss Jordan Hiscock was left purring at the display of his 18-year-old stopper.

“Piotr had a fantastic game,” said Hiscock. “He has been training with Poole and it was good of them to offer him to us.

“He has been really impressive in the two games. He had a good clean sheet last week and followed up with another excellent performance despite being on the losing side.”

Hiscock, who replaced Connor Natella as boss last month, added: “I was impressed with Buckland, they were a class act and we are still finding our feet. I asked the youngsters to compete and put in a team performance and, by and large, they did.

“I am two weeks into the job. I haven’t got a team yet, I’ve got a squad of signed players. We need a few more weeks so we can settle down as a team.

“All in all, it was a fair result and they deserved their win and the cushion of a few goals. But we worked hard and I was pleased with that.”

Linnets: Jacucha, Biddle, White, Mendy, Barber, Barnett (J Clements, 65), Parnell (M Clements, 72), Harris, Omamogdo (J Hicks, 54), Leonard, Osorio. Unused subs: Hodgson, Francis (g/k).

Boss John Pyatt hailed Lymington’s “resilience” after they had booked a place in the second round thanks to a 2-0 win over Western League Division One outfit Wells City.

Harrison Weeks drew first blood for the hosts before Wells were denied a penalty after Brad Strickland had tripped their striker on the stroke of half-time.

Darren Ritchie struck to put the tie to bed 10 minutes from time, although victory came at a price with Jack Odam carried off after suffering a recurrence of a knee injury midway through the first half.

Pyatt said: “It was a good, battling performance. We kept our concentration levels throughout and they were never really in it. We had a touch of good fortune when the penalty wasn’t given but we were still the better side.”