Defensive frailties proved costly as St Neots Town exited the FA Cup in a 3-2 defeat at Soham Town Rangers.

And there were similarities with the last meeting between the two teams in the famous old competition, 13 years previously.

On both occasions Saints had went into the break leading 2-1, although the 2007 clash saw Soham win 5-2.

All three Soham goals resulted from shoddy defensive play and that was hard on striker Leon Lobjoit who took his FA Cup tally to four goals in two games only to finish on the losing side.

St Neots began tentatively and after Jake Andrews had sent Soham’s first effort wide, they took the lead after four minutes before St Neots.

It came from the home side’s second corner and was swung in by Declan Rogers to the far post where Ashley Walter headed past goalkeeper Louis Chadwick.

It served as a wake-up call for Saints, however, and some attractive play finally set up a couple of openings.

Jake Battersby forced a full-length save from Josh Pope before Lobjoit grabbed his first of the afternoon, latching on to a superb cross-field pass from Liam Bennett to audaciously chip the ball over the keeper.

Better was to follow 10 minutes later with a curling free-kick from wide on the right that bamboozled the home defence and crept in under the bar.

But any positivity taken from their finish to the half evaporated three minutes after the break.

An innocuous looking chip to the far post found the head of Tony Andrews and he levelled the scores past a bewildered-looking defence.

Both sides then went in search of the initiative, Lobjoit only inches away from completing a hat-trick with an effort just over the bar.

A series of substitutions broke up the rhythm of the match and it was Soham who prospered with the introduction of Sam Mulready.

And it was he combined with another former Saint in Ryan Auger to grab the winning goal.

St Neots finished the stronger but the closest they came was a free-kick from skipper Lee Watkins that flew over the crossbar.

They start their Southern League Division One Central campaign on Saturday with a home game against Bedworth United.