Nottingham Forest beat 10-man Exeter on penalties as Devon double denied | FA Cup

At 11.04pm, at last there was a result, Nottingham Forest avoiding an FA Cup upset against 10-man Exeter City after prevailing from the final fourth-round tie via a 4-2 penalty shootout victory. Neco Williams scored the decisive penalty before Matz Sels, who replaced the injured Carlos Miguel midway through the second half, saved low to his right to deny Reece Cole before Angus MacDonald blasted his spot-kick against the crossbar. It was an absorbing contest – locals craned their necks from the windows of the terraced houses on St James Road to catch a view – but a cruel crescendo for third-tier Exeter.

Forest had a man advantage for 53 minutes after Ed Turns was given a straight red card for a high challenge on Morgan Gibbs-White, 23 of which were in second-half stoppage time after Taiwo Awoniyi suffered a concussion and broken nose. At the end Awoniyi was well enough to salute the Forest fans, some of whom will do well to return home by 4am. “He is in a lot of pain but with a smile on his face because he did an amazing job, scoring for us,” said Nuno Espírito Santo, relieved about his side’s progress and the injury prognosis.

Forest’s 11.30pm flight home to the east Midlands inevitably had to be pushed back. Nuno, arms folded a couple of yards outside his technical area, wore an expectant look for much of the second half but Forest failed to accelerate past opponents 58 places below them in the league pyramid. Anthony Elanga, warming up on the sidelines, waved his teammates forward as extra time loomed but then Awoniyi was injured after colliding with Joe Whitworth, the Exeter goalkeeper on loan from Crystal Palace. On the face of it, Forest’s task should have got significantly easier when Turns was penalised for clumsily catching Gibbs-White above the knee with 87 minutes on the clock.

For Forest, for whom Danilo was the only starter to keep his place from their 7-0 trouncing of Brighton, this was about resuming business after a week-long warm-weather training camp in Dubai. Forest’s players spent plenty of time training on pristine pitches but also enjoyed a period of downtime, including a session platform diving in the name of team bonding. Nuno showed his squad how it was done, diving headfirst into the water with barely a splash. Forest hoped to depart Devon with similar effortlessness and ease, but instead they were made to dig deep. Exeter, who lost their previous three League One matches by an aggregate of 13-4, had to run on empty.

The motivation for Exeter was a fifth-round tie at home to Ipswich, the obvious inspiration 45 miles west along the A38, after Plymouth shocked Liverpool. For the 10 minutes between Josh Magennis’s fifth-minute opener after a blunder by 6ft 8in Forest goalkeeper Carlos Miguel and Ramon Sosa levelling, Exeter believed. And again after Magennis pulled level early in the second half. The words were there in black and white along the bottom of a throbbing Big Bank terrace as the players emerged from the tunnel before kick-off. “From the heart of Exeter to the stage of glory – create history,” read a banner.

It was a window of dreams. By the time Awoniyi dispatched a fine left-foot shot into the bottom corner on 37 minutes, Forest had re-established normal order and long since asserted their authority. Ibrahim Sangaré impressed and Ryan Yates squandered a chance to open up a two-goal buffer for Forest in first-half stoppage time and a few minutes into the second period Forest found themselves back at square one. Miguel pushed Magennis’s initial header a corner away but the Exeter captain thrashed another shot goalwards and Willy Boly inadvertently sliced a clearance in off a post. Miguel was forced off with a hamstring injury and replaced by Sels, whose first act was to save from Ilmari Niskanen.

Forest struggled to regain quite the same sense of control. Nuno recognised as much and introduced Elliot Anderson and Gibbs-White in place of Yates and Sangaré. Both provided the desired spark. Within three minutes Anderson rattled a shot against the side netting and soon afterwards he combined with Gibbs-White. Gibbs-White sent a sumptuous pass twirling towards Anderson with the outside of his right boot and, after receiving the ball back from Anderson, Gibbs-White sent a shot at Whitworth, 5ft 10in, tiny compared to Miguel.

Forest seemed inhibited by their one-man advantage but continued to carve out chances. Jota Silva smacked the crossbar in the dying seconds of stoppage time after pickpocketing Caleb Watts inside the Exeter box and Forest kept Whitworth busy throughout extra time.

Both managers exhausted their six substitutes, permitted after Awoniyi’s withdrawal as a concussion replacement. By the end Exeter’s three-man defence comprised Magennis, a veteran striker, Niskanen, a wing-back, and centre-back MacDonald, who had a flawless debut but for his penalty cannoning against the woodwork. “Wow, we took a look [at Exeter] and we knew it was going to be hard at set pieces,” Nuno said. “They are fighting for their lives and I have been the underdog many times, so I credit them a lot.”