FA Cup first round: Wimborne Town lead four giant-killings as Grimsby Town survive Stafford Rangers on penalties

Grimsby Town had 29 shots to Stafford Rangers' 12, 66% of the ball and 48 touches in the opposition box to 15. Until the 74th minute none of it showed on the scoreboard, and for long stretches of a Sunday lunchtime a League Two club from the fourth tier looked like going out to an eighth-tier club from Northern Premier League Division One West. Grimsby Town won 3-2 on penalties in the end. It was not comfortable.

This was a Stafford side whose cup run had started back in August and who had not reached the first round for 20 years. They were ahead inside three minutes: Stafford's Jack Birch lifted a pass over the Grimsby back line, and his team-mate Darrhyl Mason, a firefighter, met it with a rising drive that flew into the top corner. Grimsby's Iwan Morgan then hit the foot of the left upright, and a goal-bound shot from Morgan's team-mate Joe Foulkes was palmed clear by Stafford goalkeeper Russell Saunders. Stafford's second arrived in the 43rd minute. Grimsby goalkeeper Harvey Cartwright parried a deflected effort from Stafford's Bebeto Gomes, and Birch forced the loose ball home from a tight angle, his 12th of the season.

Grimsby's Justin Amaluzor, on at half-time, smacked the crossbar, and their goalkeeper Harvey Cartwright twice denied Stafford's Jack Birch from close range to keep the gap at two goals. That mattered. Grimsby's Iwan Morgan then delivered two free-kicks and his team-mates headed both in, Harvey Rodgers rising highest in the 74th minute and Maldini Kacurri nodding powerfully past Stafford's Russell Saunders in the 76th. Two headers inside two minutes sent the tie to extra time.

Stafford's Darrhyl Mason restored their lead early in extra time, converting a close-range centre from team-mate Bebeto Gomes in the 93rd minute for his second goal. Grimsby's Géza Dávid Turi drew them level again just before the change of ends, gathering a loose ball and poking it in. With the second period growing frantic, Stafford goalkeeper Russell Saunders stretched full length to keep out Grimsby substitute Sonny Finch and a winner at the death.

The shoot-out belonged to Grimsby's Harvey Cartwright. Stafford's Jack Birch and Harvey Washington were both denied by him, and so was Stafford's Luca Navarro, a 120th-minute substitute, while Cartwright's team-mates Andy Cook, Cian Doyle and Justin Amaluzor all scored. Stafford made six saves over the afternoon, and only ten of Grimsby's 29 shots were on target. A side with that much of the ball should not need its goalkeeper to beat an eighth-tier club. Grimsby did.

Wimborne Town are a tier-seven Southern League Premier Division South club, and they had reached the first round only once before. Crawley Town play in League Two, the fourth tier. Wimborne Town beat Crawley Town 2-0 at The Wyatt Homes Stadium, a result that earns them a first appearance in round two. Nowhere else in the round did a winner overcome a wider gap in tiers.

The opener came from a Crawley mistake. Crawley goalkeeper Vito Mannone threw the ball out loosely, Wimborne's Ángel Díaz set up team-mate Seung-Woo Yang, and Yang's superb curling shot found the top-left corner in the ninth minute. Mannone, once Sunderland's goalkeeper, later got down to hold a near-post shot from Wimborne's Joe Smith, who had been sent clear by a long ball. Crawley's Kai Jennings drilled a low ball across goal that went narrowly wide of the left-hand post, and that was close to the sum of the visitors' first half.

Crawley manager Kevin Blackwell sent on three substitutes at half-time, and his side had plenty of the ball after the break. Their closest effort was a low shot from Crawley's Charlie Barker, struck from just outside the area, that curled past the post rather than inside it. Wimborne were tiring, yet they protected the lead without much alarm until a wayward shot from Wimborne substitute Jackson King deflected in off his team-mate Cameron Munn in the 79th minute. The Crawley goalkeeper Mannone then tipped a late piledriver from King over the bar.

Crawley Town had 62% of the ball, 400 passes to 258 and 24 crosses to six. They put two shots on target all match. Wimborne Town had five on target from eight attempts, made 37 clearances and won 38 aerial duels to Crawley's 27, which is the profile of a side that knew exactly which game it was playing. Crawley have now fallen at their first FA Cup hurdle in five of the past six seasons.

Altrincham 2-2 Notts County will be remembered less for the football than for how little of it anyone could see. A thick fog sat over the pitch for around an hour, the cameras often lost the ball altogether, and the Notts County supporters at the far end could only tell whether their side had gone through by listening to the home fans, cheering or falling silent. Notts County won 3-2 on penalties. Their fans at that end found out by ear.

Notts County's Jacob Bedeau scored while the conditions were still kinder, in the 28th minute. Altrincham's Lucas Weaver and Lewis Banks then scored in the 39th and 59th minutes to put the National League side, from tier five, two-one up against a League One side from tier three. The fog never cleared, and referee David Rock let play go on. Bedeau's team-mate Callum Roberts equalised in the 84th minute, taking the tie to extra time and, eventually, penalties.

The radio fared no better than the television. Adam Hassell, commentating for BBC Radio Nottingham, said he could just about make out the white numbers on the players' shirts: "I am struggling to see what is happening on the far side of the pitch." Mark Stallard, once a Notts County striker and also on BBC Radio Nottingham, added: "We're looking around, and here in the press box no-one knows where the ball is! It's like a Spot-the-Ball competition."

The shoot-out was a predictably nervy affair. Altrincham's Aidan Barlow and Sam Taylor missed, their team-mate Ed Jones had his kick saved by Notts County's James Belshaw, and Notts County's Rosaire Longelo slotted home the decisive penalty. Over the tie Notts County had 26 shots to Altrincham's 14 and ten on target to eight, and Altrincham made eight saves. The League One side earned their place on those numbers. They still needed a shoot-out to collect it.

Kidderminster Harriers of the National League, tier five, beat Doncaster Rovers of League One, tier three, 3-0 at the Aggborough Stadium, and the score did not flatter them. Doncaster had 60% of the ball. Kidderminster had four shots on target and scored three times.

Kidderminster's Maziar Kouhyar cut the ball back for team-mate Lewis Walker, whose first shot came back off the upright before he scored with the second in the 22nd minute. Walker sent one effort over the bar and another wide, then made the next goal in the 36th minute, running at Doncaster from deep before laying it on for Kouhyar, a Notts County player on loan, to finish. The visitors had one attempt before half-time, in stoppage time: Doncaster's Alfie May tried a chip, and Kidderminster goalkeeper Jack Wint had to claw it away.

Doncaster boss Grant McCann changed things at half-time, and one of his substitutes, Leon Ayinde, started to pull the Kidderminster defence about. Doncaster's Alfie May then went down in the box reaching for a pass from team-mate Jordan Thomas, and the penalty appeals came to nothing. Two minutes on, the gap was three. Kidderminster's Maziar Kouhyar saw his shot parried by Doncaster goalkeeper Josh Clarke, and the loose ball fell for Kouhyar's team-mate David Davis to put away in the 59th minute.

Late on, Doncaster substitutes Hakeeb Adelakun and Isaac Hutchinson both made Kidderminster goalkeeper Jack Wint work, and he coped. Kidderminster had 40% of the ball and 12 shots to Doncaster's 11, with three saves to Doncaster's one. Doncaster had more of the ball. Kidderminster did more with less of it, and that is most of what a cup tie asks.

Cray Wanderers, an Isthmian League side from tier seven, were nine minutes away from knocking out League One Stockport County, from tier three. They led two-nil at half-time against opponents who had lost their goalkeeper to a red card. Stockport County still won by three goals to two after extra time.

Cray's Sammie McLeod scored first, in the 21st minute, finishing neatly after Stockport lost the ball and his team-mate Olajuwon Ogunwamide ran on and delivered the ideal cross. In the 31st minute Cray's John Ufuah lifted the ball over Stockport goalkeeper Luca Ashby-Hammond, the lob was stopped before it could cross the line, and Ashby-Hammond was shown a red card for crashing into Ufuah. Ufuah's team-mate Alex Hernández struck the free-kick that followed superbly to make it two. "We were in dreamland at half-time. We couldn't believe where we were," Cray manager Tim O'Shea told BBC Sport.

Stockport had 66% of the ball and Cray held on until the 81st minute, when Stockport substitute Kyle Wootton headed home at close quarters from a cross by his team-mate Josh Dacres-Cogley. Wootton's team-mate Mikaël Mandron levelled in stoppage time, and extra time followed. In the 101st minute, Stockport's Lewis Fiorini scored from the penalty spot after a foul in the area by Cray's JJ Briggs, and the visitors were in front for the first time.

Cray finished with 15 shots to Stockport's 16, though only three of theirs were on target to six. "We had to go for it, we had to show absolute bravery against a team who, even a man up, I thought would fatigue," Stockport manager Jimmy McNulty told BBC Sport. Cray's manager O'Shea had his own verdict: "We've caused them more problems than perhaps some opposition in their own division." On the shot count, he had a point.