Former Green Kieran Bailey came back to haunt Soham Town Rangers as Cambridge City sealed their place in the semi-finals of the Cambridgeshire Invitation Cup last night.

Bailey, who made four appearances for Soham earlier this season, struck the decisive goal after 92 minutes to secure the Lilywhites’ passage into the last four.

Soham tested City stopper Enol Ordonez on a number of occasions in the first half but couldn’t find a breakthrough.

Bailey then fired home from the edge of the box late on to break the Greens’ hearts.

Joint-manager, Robbie Nightingale, said: “On the first half performance we should have been one or two goals ahead.

“We played some good stuff once we settled down after 15 minutes and we had some threats and caused them problems.

“In the second half we ran out of steam which is understandable as four or five of the players had not played for a couple of weeks.

“As much as we wanted to progress it was important to give certain individuals some game time.

“We were the underdogs. They’re in the league above and I know everyone says that they haven’t won anything for a while but they’re still a top side so it was always going to be tough.

“We defended well, our centre halves were very good and the ‘keeper was solid. We matched them all over and on another day we could have been a goal or two up.”

Nightingale also admitted that his men have struggled to turn their dominance into goals in recent weeks after Soham were punished by strugglers Great Wakering Rovers on Saturday.

The Greens spurned a number of opportunities to take the lead at Julius Martin Lane, but were left empty handed after the Essex Outfit snatched a 2-1 victory, ending a run of nine straight defeats.

“In the last two or three games we’ve struggled to get that early goal that we’ve often deserved and that was certainly the case on Saturday,” Nightingale said.

“You could hear that they just wanted to get to the break level and the longer it went on without us scoring the more confidence they got, then they had a bit of luck and scored two very good goals.”

Soham, who are yet to win in November, return to Ryman League action this weekend with an away clash with Thamesmead Town – a fixture Nightingale sees as a must win.

He said: “They’re down with us so it’s important to start getting good results against the sides around us. We’re positive that we can go there and get a good result.”