Alton came back from 16-5 down to book their place in the third around of the EDF Energy Cup Junior Vase but it was a tough slog on a blustery day at the Isle of Wight's Footways ground.

The islanders, who lie second in Hampshire 2, shocked Alton with a try and a penalty right at the start of the second period and looked set to dump their higher-league opponents out of the cup.

Bouncebackability may not be a recognised word but Alton certainly put a good case for its inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary, rattling up 25 unanswered points and four tries, turning the game on its head and thus avoiding an inglorious cup exit.

As with the league match against strugglers Millbrook the previous week, Alton could not impose themselves in the first half, faced as they were by a huge IoW pack and a stiff old wind.

The home side opened the scoring half-way through the first period, when they managed to scrag possession from the base of the Alton scrummage five yards out and number eight Richard Sawle burrowed over.

Alton responded immediately however, when Steve Ott made a clean break from first-phase ball forty yards out, and his off-load allowed centre Jason Rees to show a clean pair of heels to the covering defence.

Before and after the tries, it was a scrappy affair, The two teams' approach to the game could not have contrasted more sharply: the islanders effectively played nine-man rugby, their bulky forwards taking short passes from the scrum-half and charging at Alton's much smaller eight; Alton, meanwhile sought to move the ball wide at every opportunity.

The problem for the visitors was that they could not get their hands on the ball enough - and when they did, they tended to concede possession or penalties.

Predictably, the home side dominated territorially and regained the lead on the stroke of half-time when stand-off Gary Warvell stroked a 30-yard penalty after Alton were penalised for hanging on in the tackle.

But, trailing 8-5 at the interval and looking forward to a powerful wind at their backs, Alton seemed set to pile on the points.

Not a bit of it. Predictably unpredictable, Alton made a wretched start to the second period by conceding eight points in two minutes.

They were penalised for offside immediately after the restart, Warvell calmly negotiating the wind and slotting the three points for 25 yards.

Then, following the next restart, it went from bad to worse for the Red Bellies when the Isle of Wight took a scrum against the head, scrum-half Neil Brading escaped down the blindside and fed pacy young wing Brett Evans, who outpaced the defence to score in the right-hand corner. Alton were in trouble.

However, this young Alton side is nothing if not resilient and they duly strung together 20 minutes of clinical rugby.

Ott narrowed the deficit when, from a quick-tap penalty, he squeezed through a half-gap and stretched over, and five minutes later the fly-half and Rees combined down the blindside to put fullback Ali Willman over in the corner. In a trice, Alton had the lead for the first time in the match.

The bit between now firmly between their teeth, Alton went for the kill and James Gay notched his fourth try in four games when he touched down from a rolling maul.

Ott, kicking into the wind, converted brilliantly from the right-hand touchline and the visitors now had a crucial eight-point cushion.

The islanders stuck to their eight-man battering-ram game-plan and continued to use their forwards to pound away at the Alton defence, but this time to no avail though they nearly reduced the arrears four minutes from time when full-back Andy Whyte was hauled down just short of the line following a breakaway.

But Alton sealed the win in the final play of the match when Ott spun the ball wide from a scrummage on the Isle of Wight 22 and Rees, again the hub of most of Alton's back-play, picked the ball off his toes and flicked a wonderful long pass to replacement wing Bruce Oliphant, who sauntered over. Ott converted. Job done.

Isle of Wight: A Whyte; B Evans, N Puckett, P Courage, A Woodbridge; G Warvell, N Brading; D Jennings, M Allen, M Newnham; P Simpson, M Orchard (c); R Jackson, M Palmer, R Sawle.

Tries: Sawle, Evans Penalties: Warvell (2)

Alton: A Willman; J Smith (B Wallace 20), J Rees, S Johns, D Forsyth (B Oliphant 60); S Ott, J Grace; J Rowe, L Parratt (c), J Gay; R White, M Greenhalgh; S Jones, A Davies, M Forsyth. Replacement not used: T Hopkin.

Tries: Rees, Ott, Willman, Gay, Oliphant; Conversions: Ott (3).