The torch has been passed and it is up to a new set of PE teachers and refuse collectors to reaffirm the spirit of the FA Cup after Havant & Waterlooville were beaten 3-1 by Brentford at Westleigh Park yesterday. Histon, Curzon Ashton, Blyth Spartans and the rest - over to you.

The Blue Square South club went out with something of a bang after a first half that suggested it might be with a whimper. Two penalty appeals and two excellent saves from the visiting goalkeeper at least allowed Havant to claim that they were unlucky not to remain in the competition in which they made their name ten months ago.

Reporters followed Tony Taggart on his rounds as a binman and found out that Rocky Baptiste’s real first name is Jairzinho in the days leading up to last season’s fourth round, in which they twice led Liverpool at Anfield before losing 5-2. Few people were seriously expecting a repeat of those heroics, but if there was any disappointment it is misplaced, according to Shaun Gale, the manager. “It was always going to be a difficult task to emulate a story as big as last year’s and it won’t be done for a long, long time,” he said.

And not only because Baptiste, Taggart and most of the others who worked last season’s Cup miracles have moved on in one of those mass staff rotations that are common in nonLeague football. Of the team that played at Anfield, only three players were involved yesterday.

Some, Gale said, had priced themselves out of further contracts and the manager believes that the replacements funded by last season’s run will prove their worth, despite a disappointing league placing of sixteenth. “I believe we have a better team, but we had no divine right to win the league,” Gale said. “We have moved on massively in 12 months and we are far more professional, but it takes time for teams to gel.”

That was also true yesterday. Brentford, ninth in Coca-Cola League Two, are 55 places above Havant in the league pyramid and although they had won only one of their previous seven matches, showed none of the nerves that can afflict League teams in such circumstances and battled as hard as the home side throughout. “We treated it as if we were a nonLeague team on the same level as them,” Andy Scott, the Brentford manager, said. “It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t have to be.”

Brentford had the better of a poor first half played in a strong wind. They rode their luck after 23 minutes when Dean Whitestone, the referee, missed a tug by Alan Bennett on Gary Elphick’s shirt in the penalty area – since he had also failed to notice that the minute’s silence to mark Remembrance Sunday had started without him, the signs were not promising – and took the lead four minutes before the break when Nathan Elder shot and Marvyn Williams pounced on the rebound from Kevin Scriven’s save. Charlie MacDonald doubled the lead after 69 minutes, hooking the ball in after a corner by Glenn Poole was not cleared, but Havant hit back four minutes later as Ian Simpemba headed home at the far post.

That was Havant’s cue to make their big push. There was a further penalty appeal against Bennett and Ben Hamer, the Brentford goalkeeper, saved well from a shot and a header from Paul Booth within a minute of the substitute taking the field. Seconds later, Elder volleyed in the third goal from MacDonald’s cross to end the resistance.

“We gifted them goals but we kept going,” Gale said. “Credit to Brentford. They are a good side but Lady Luck didn’t shine on us today.”

Havant & Waterlooville (4-3-3): K Scriven – J Conroy, I Simpemba, G Elphick, J Gasson – S Wilkinson (sub: B Poate, 68min), G Holloway, J Collins – M Gray (sub: C Henry, 55), L Nightingale (sub: P Booth, 80), C Watkins. Substitutes not used: A Baldaccino, N Ashmore, J Ford. Booked: Elphick, Collins, Nightingale.

Brentford (4-4-2): B Hamer – J Halls (sub: K Osborne, 79), M Phillips, A Bennett, R Dickson – M Williams (sub: A Newton, 69), M Bean, K O’Connor, G Poole (sub: S Wood, 86) – N Elder, C MacDonald. Substitutes not used: B Johnson, C Pead, M Ademola, S Brown. Booked: Newton.

Referee: D Whitestone. Attendance: 1,631.

Explore Football

• Premier League

• Football League

• Scotland

• European Football

• International Football

• TheGame

• Live Match Tracker

• The Fink Tank

• Fantasy Football