There was little to warm the hearts of the Tring Athletic faithful on a chilly night at The Grass Roots Stadium as they saw their side knocked out of the Herts Senior Challenge Cup by Stevenage.
League One side Stevenage were in control of the contest from the off and cruised to a 4-0 victory to book their place in the third round of the competition.
The visitors rested the majority of their side that had lost 3-1 to Shrewsbury on Saturday, but their class told with four well-taken goals.
To their credit, Tring battled hard on the night and restricted their visitors to just a few chances after half-time, having gone in 3-0 down at the break.
Left-back Roarie Deacon opened the scoring with a crisp strike from the edge of the area, and the lead was doubled soon afterwards.
Tring midfielder Lee Benning was caught in possession just inside his own half, and he was punished emphatically by Dean Parrett who drove into the box before finishing well.
Tring winger Chris Vardy produced the home side’s best effort of the half when he forced the keeper to scramble back to save a 35-yard lob, but Stevenage wrapped up the win before the interval with a third goal.
In a carbon copy of the opener, Greg Tansey drilled the ball low and hard from the edge of the area and it nestled into the bottom corner.
The game fizzled out somewhat in the second half, but Stevenage added a fourth through Jordan Burrow.