Hardly's hopes of qualifying from the cup group were dealt a blow as they lost 1-0 to Division One side Costa Del Stoke.
Hardly now have two wins and two defeats from their four group games so far and will probably need to win their remaining three cup games to book a spot at finals day.
Athletic, who had lost all three previous games against Del Stoke, started brightly and showed great effort and work rate to deny their opponents more than a handful of chances at goal.
Costa were in front though, with what turned out to be the games only strike, when the striker wriggled free before firing past stand in keeper Dan Buxton.
Buxton the swapped with Matthew Young for the second period and returned up front but was unable to convert a trio of second half chances whilst Cope, Robins and McEvoy all went close to levelling the scores.