Ten man Stansted suffered FA Cup heartache away at Stotfold on Saturday in the first qualifying round. Captain Michael Palmieri received a straight red card after 62 minutes as the hosts fought back from a goal down to take the victory. Manager Terry Spi

Ten man Stansted suffered FA Cup heartache away at Stotfold on Saturday in the first qualifying round.

Captain Michael Palmieri received a straight red card after 62 minutes as the hosts fought back from a goal down to take the victory.

Manager Terry Spillane was unhappy with the sending off decision

"I'm really disappointed with the referee," he said. "15 or 16 players were involved in a scuffle and to pull one player out is harsh.

"I'm still waiting to see the referee's reporrt to see the reason he sent Michael off. He's not a bad ref but he made some bad decisions on Saturday."

The manager was pleased with the way his side played and felt it was a tie they could have progressed from.

"I'm disappointed with the result, but not the performance," said Spillane.

"They are a well drilled physical side, but I think the game was winable and that's the hardest thing to take.

"Our unbeaten run has also come to an end which was disapooitning but it had to happen sometime.

"We put Stansted on the map locally and that's what we set out to do and we want to go on another run like it now."

The Aiportmen got off to a flying start when they took the lead after just four minutes. Sam McCarthy found hiomself with some space in the middle of the box and disapatched a fine strike past Brad Gillman.

However, six minutes later, the lively forward picked up an injury and was repalced by Greg Taylor.

Stansted keeper Matt Cope was called into action saving well from Louis Lee, but the hosts drew level after 32 minutes.

Bobby Dance forced an error from Ross Crabtree on the left allowing Paul Garrett to fire a ball across the goal from the byline with Lee Allinson stuning the ball into the net at the far post.

Luke Donnelly put Garrett's deflected shot over the bar just before Joel Mason put Stotfold ahead on 42 minutes firing low past Cope.

Masons' second came after some good work from Luke Donnelly on the left hand side of the halfway line launching a diagonal ball forward to the right for Mason to chest down taking it away from his marker and then lob the approaching keeper on 56 minutes.

After a poor challenge on Ryan Nicholl and some pushing and shoving, Palmieri was shown a straight red.

However, Stansted didn't let their heads drop and Danny Dow forced a good low stop from Gillham, before he pulled one back on 84 minutes firing low to the far post.

Any hope Stansted had of a comeback was squashed two minutesd later when Mason completed his hat-trick to book his side's place in the next round.

Stansted start their FA Vase campaign on Saturday with a second qualifying round clash at home to Daventry United.

"We won't win it, but we want to go as far as possible," said Spillane.

"It's a winable game on and there's no pressure on us.