Seager strikes late in FA Cup thriller
FIVE goals, a penalty save and a red card. It was a dramatic afternoon at Bulpit Lane as Hungerford Town beat Cirencester Town 3-2 in the third qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup.
Cirencester should have gone ahead after a couple of big firsthalf chances.
Levi Irving, who was causing the Crusaders all sorts of problems down the right, carried the ball into the penalty area and his shot was denied by the feet of Luke Cairney at his near post.
Four minutes later, Cairney was called upon twice in quick succession.
Josh Parsons was denied from close range by the body of the Hungerford keeper, before then seeing his shot palmed away by him after an attempt from outside the penalty area.
It took Hungerford 33 minutes to have their best chance of the half, when a cross-field ball from Ryan Seager saw Rhys Tyler cut inside and hit a left-footed shot, forcing Alex Harris into action.
It didn’t, however, take long for the deadlock to be broken when a corner saw the ball fall to Keith Emmerson, who fired his effort into the back of the net.
Chris Flood was unlucky not to make it 2-0 when his first-time effort struck the inside of the post.
Cirencester were gifted a huge opportunity to level the game after 68 minutes as Callum Willmoth was penalised for handling the ball in the area.
From the resulting kick, Irving was denied by Cairney and the danger was cleared.
The visitors were made to pay a minute later as Hungerford broke away and Nana Kyei set up Seager for a simple tap-in to make it 2-0.
Cirencester began their charge with 15 minutes left as Ellis Dunton smashed home his effort after the ball fell to his feet.
The visitors, remarkably, drew level a minute later when Ben Whitehead reacted quickest to head the ball into the back of the net from close range, seconds after Cairney made a fine save on to the crossbar.
The tie got harder for Hungerford when Willmoth was given a second yellow card after a late challenge and they were forced to see out the game with 10 men.
After a James Rusby throw, Simo Mbonkwi superbly forced his way to the corner and sent a cross into the box.
From there, Seager got in front of his man to fire past the Cirencester keeper at the near post and send Bulpit Lane wild.