FA Cup Wrexham (4)1 - 1(5) Brighton

Wrexham flew the Blue Square Bet Premier flag for as long as they possibly could in this FA Cup third-round replay, taking the Championship side Brighton to penalties after leading for much of the game and creating most of the chances. The substitute Dean Keates saw his first penalty saved by Brighton's goalkeeper Peter Brezovan, leaving the visitors to put a full set past Joslain Mayebi and earn a home tie against Newcastle in the fourth round.

"It was a proper Cup tie and a difficult one," said Gus Poyet, Brighton's manager. "Wrexham made plenty of chances but you need to take them. The Cup is about getting through somehow, and that's what we did."

Brighton had equalised only 13 minutes from the end of normal time and were lucky in the closing seconds of extra time, when Jay Harris headed against the bar. Both sides had chances in the added half hour, with Mayebi saving from Torbjorn Agdestein and Brezovan doing even better to prevent Wrexham's Mark Creighton scoring from Jamie Tolley's corner, but with Mayebi producing his best save of the game to deny Will Buckley with only minutes to go, another two hours of football after the first 1–1 draw failed to split teams three divisions apart.

"We had the better chances, I think," Wrexham's player-manager Andy Morrell said. "The lads are devastated in the dressing room but I've told them there's no need to be. We gave a decent Championship team a right run for their money. I am immensely proud, and now we need to use this as a springboard for promotion, like Crawley did [last season]."

Brighton had an escape after 20 minutes, when Morrell saw a shot cleared off the line by Iñigo Calderón, but if he was disappointed with that he only needed three minutes to make amends in full, advancing to the edge of the area and finding Brezovan's top-left corner with a perfectly placed shot that brought the Racecourse Ground to its feet.

Brezovan had to deny Adrian Ciesiewicz at the start of the second half as Wrexham threatened to extend their lead, and when Romain Vincelot failed to trap a ball on the left touchline and let a pass from a team-mate roll out for a home throw, it began to look as if it might not be Brighton's night.

Will Hoskins fired too high when Brighton worked a rare second-half shooting opportunity from a free kick, before Poyet sent on Agdestein and Ashley Barnes in an attempt to increase his attacking options. Either the plan worked or Wrexham tired, for in just about their first sustained attack of the game, Matt Sparrow crossed for Barnes to silence the crowd with a header that went in off a post. Extra time was lively and open, but ultimately Brighton took better penalties. "We had practised as well," Morrell said. "We were good, but how good were Brighton's penalty takers?"