It was the Evo-Stik Northern Premier strugglers who fashioned out the first chance of this local derby on the 15 minute mark when James McCarthy tested Danny Watson with an attempt he was more than equal to.

With the prestige – and prize money – that comes with the FA Cup there was a period of both sides testing each other out before Chasetown really began to take over. Danny Smith – scorer of one of Chasetown’s most famous FA Cup goals – teed up Nick Wellecomme and, against his former club, brought a superb save out of Jonathan Brain in the visiting goal.

When the resultant corner was first cleared, Simon Brown’s follow up cross was headed narrowly wide by Tesfa Robinson as he stretched to get on the end of the ball to the far post.

Then, minutes later, Robinson went even closed with a header that beat Brain but was cleared off the line by Stafford skipper Darren Bullock.

Danny Smith was a whisker wide with an overhead kick as it looked increasingly likely that it would be the hosts who opened the scoring.

Smith then found the net after a superb move involving Wellecomme and Brown that tore the Stafford defence to shreds. Unfortunately for Smith, his shot through the legs of Brain was ruled out for the tightest of offside flags.

In the final minute of regulation time in the first half, the frame of the goal kept the scores level when McCarthy’s thunderbolt from close range came back off the underside of the crossbar, with Chase skipper Chris Slater caught by a high boot clearing the rebound.

Slater returned at the start of the second half with his head wound bandaged up with his presence increasingly significant as the half progressed.

The second half started quite flat and Chasetown were restricted to ambitious long range efforts with Avun Jephcott one player who tested Brain from range but the keeper was equal to it. Then, when Bullock miskicked a clearance, Smith seized on the loose ball, took a touch and lashed a first time shot that flashed well wide in the end but was worth the punt.

The Scholars lost Danny Bragoli through injury as the midfielder struggled to shake off a knock he’d received in the first half, and it seemed to coincide with Stafford taking control of the game.

McCarthy was never far away from the action and tested Danny Watson with a free header straight at and then former Scholars striker Danny Quinn put an effort over the bar from close range.

Jephcott threw himself in front of an Oliver Davies shot as the left back looked likely to hit the target with a shot and then another former Chasetown player Alex Steadman thought he had won it in the dying minutes with a long range effort that came back off the inside of the post, with Scholars skipper Chris Slater preventing a strike at goal with a world class tackle to deny the opposition from a certain goal.

Watson kept his first Chasetown clean sheet with a dramatic late save while Marco Adaggio flashed a late chance over the bar for Craig Harris’ men.

Chasetown: Danny Watson, Jack Farmer, Louis Keenan, Chris Slater, Tesfa Robinson, Avun Jephcott, Simon Brown, Danny Bragoli (Lee Butler, 63 mins), Nick Wellecomme (Marco Adaggio, 85 mins), Danny Smith (Ramone Stephens, 70 mins), Grant Beckett

Other subs: Jonathan Haynes, Richard Teesdale, Leigh Downing, Tim Beech (not used)

Stafford Rangers: Brain, Carr, Davies, Spittle, Bullock, Dacres (Langston 76 mins), McCarthy, Flynn, Quinn (Cope, 85 mins), Kinsella (Steadman, 65 mins), Johnson

Other subs: R Brown, Alcock (not used)