Another cup run ends too early.
On a pitch that had held up well considering the amount of rain that fell on Tuesday, both the Crows and the Bears served up an entertaining evening's football for the brave souls who managed to leave the comfort of their homes and support the teams.
Little did they know at the time though that it would be a longer evening than they expected as the tie went all the way, through 90 minutes of normal play, 30 minutes of extra time and even penalties and even the penalties had to go to sudden death.
The early exchanges were fairly even, Andrade threatening the Crows goal first and then Carrington had a good chance for the home side, after neat play by the returning Clarke, however, goalkeeper Chester saves well at the strikers feet at the expense of a corner.
Clarke was instrumental in setting Biddlecombe up to score the first goal for the Crows after 18 minutes, the striker hitting a pass from Clarke from some distance out and his shot gave Chester no chance whatsoever.
The away side responded well to this early set back and Boddy, who had an excellent match throughout, was often the main reason why the Crows held onto the lead at half time.
The Crows went 2-0 up as early as the 49th minute, 'keeper Chester getting into a mix up with Flack and Carrington takes advantage of the situation by putting the ball into the back of the net.
As often the case when you've just scored, you're at your most vulnerable and in the 52nd minute the score became 2-1, Moore fires the ball past Hampson in the Crow's goal, giving him no chance.
There's another habit the Crows have, which happened a lot last season although not so much this term, and that is once they concede one goal, another can follow quite quickly. And it came back to hunt us on Tuesday as Andrade made it 2-2 in the 57th minute, therefore, what looked like a certain victory now became a battle of nerve.
I think it's fair to say, having read the comments of both managers, that neither club was happy with the performance of the referee on the night and both felt some of the decisions he made were rather baffling.
The Crows felt they should have had a couple of stonewall penalties whilst the Bears felt some of the bookings they received were harsh, just as the Crows did about Jagger's yellow card which confused all of those watching and only the referee will be able to explain why he got the card.
His performance throughout the second half led to him losing control of the game as both sets of players were getting frustrated by his odd decisions and, later on, this was to cost the Crows dear.
With it being 2-2, both sides had it all to play for but as extra-time was looming, the Bears thought they had won the game when Bhujun slotted the ball home in after 90+2 minutes, this signalled mass celebrations from all the Bears players as they now led 3-2.
As I mentioned earlier, a side is at its most vulnerable when it has just scored and this proved to be the case in this game again, Carrington latching on to a long ball and he was upended by goalkeeper Carter, this time the referee could not deny the Crows their penalty claims and Carter saw red for his actions.
Carrington took the penalty himself against the Bears centre-half, Flack, who had taken over the gloves and therefore, after 90+6 minutes, it was 3-3 and extra-time now beckoned.
The extra 30 minutes reflected much of what had happened in the previous 90, both teams trying to win the game, bizarre and odd refereeing decisions and fluctuating emotions were the order of the day.
Carrington got his hat trick in the 2nd minute of extra-time, stand-in 'keeper Flack fumbling the ball and the Crows striker had a simple tap-in to make it 4-3.
It was mostly an even game for the rest of the first period of extra-time, even though the Bears were down to 10 players, and it only became a defensive game for the Crows as the final 5 minutes of extra-time loomed, unfortunately, the referee made another odd decision and the Bears were awarded a hotly disputed corner.
From the corner Weller found the bottom corner of the Crows net in the end and right on the final whistle practically, it became 4-4, misery for the Crows, jubilation for the Bears.
Therefore, penalties it was, Bears with a stand-in 'keeper were probably not the favourites, however, when down to 10 there's a backs-to-the-wall mentality plus having equalised at the death, the adrenalin is flowing quickly whilst for the Crow players the dejection was palpable for all to see.
Even during the penalties the emotions of both sets of players were tested to the limit, Crows getting themselves 3-1 ahead, Hampson making a great save to deny the Bears, however, in the end the Crows missed too many, the Bears scored theirs and eventually won the penalty competition 8-7 and therefore, go through to the next round.
On reflection after the game, this was a match the Crows should have won and probably just about deserved to, however, the failure to be able to kill a game off and the annoying habit of conceding goals in quick succession proved to be their down full.
Even if the referee did not have a very good game and there were unfortunate injuries to players during the game, you have to look at yourself eventually and bad decisions, injuries and unavailability of players cannot disguise the fact that the Crows are their own worst enemy at times.
Lessons need to be learnt about becoming more resilient and tougher at key points during matches, taking the "sting" out of any situation and remaining cool and calm under pressure. Whilst we do have a crop of young players and they will learn through experience, it must be just as frustrating for them to lose a game they should have won comfortably as it is for us as spectators.
No one could criticise any of our players for effort and commitment during the 120 minutes and one player who gave his all throughout was Tom Boddy who was given the award of the Crows Man of the Match by the Crows fans.