Danny Hylton and Chris Blackburn missed their spot-kicks – Hylton’s last effort hitting the bar – after Louie Soares had rescued an equaliser deep into injury time to ensure the game finished level in 90 minutes.
A flu-ravaged Shots squad had played their full part in an entertaining game, and, to cap a fine start, took a 14th minute lead: Hylton’s great run down the right ended with an intelligent pull-back which found Hudson waiting to drill a low shot into the net.
Debutant Antonio German proved himself an impressive lone striker, but, having fallen behind, Hereford wrested almost total control of the half. Jaimez-Ruiz stood strong to block Pugh’s shot, and then did well to tip Marshall’s cross both away from the waiting Constantine and over the bar, yet was helpless when Walker lashed in a stunning 30-yard shot on 41 minutes.
Hudson spurned a couple of half-chances just after the break, and Barrett did well to grab Hylton’s teasing curler, but, despite it remaining an open and entertaining game, it looked increasingly likely as though it would be decided by penalties.
The introduction of Hereford’s own debutant, Mathieu Manset, however, galvanized both sides into a 10-minute grandstand finish. Manset turned Blackburn and sent a shot fizzing over the bar; in response, Hylton rose highest at the far-post to meet Chalmers’ far-post chip, and brought a fine save from Bartlett. Manset thought he’d won the game on 89 minutes, beating Jaimez-Ruiz to the loose ball after Pugh’s scuffed shot took a huge deflection.
That, though, reckoned without Soares’ great finish in the 94th minute, crashing in a shot off the post with almost the last kick of the game, and the 897 hardy souls inside Edgar Street did indeed witness the predictable denouement.
Jaimez-Ruiz guessed correctly for Hereford’s first three penalties without getting more than fingertips to efforts from Marshall, Pugh and Lunt, Soares and Hudson had replied with confidence, but then Blackburn’s kick was weak and King shot over the bar. Chalmers and Manset took the score to 4-3 and the task of taking the shoot-out into sudden death fell, onerously, to Hylton.
Wembley, and its attendant cash windfall, remains a distant dream for The Shots, but Waddock would surely swap progress in this competition for another three League points against Morecambe on Saturday.