Northern Irish Premier League champions Linfield were forced to come from behind to defeat Highland League side Buckie Thistle at Victoria Park.
The Jags led through Marcus Goodall’s opportunistic 52nd minute lob but two goals in a minute were enough to see the Blues progress to the fourth round.
The visitors were forced to play the majority of the game with 10 men after Chris Shields was sent off 11 minutes before the break.
Linfield boss, former Manchester United and Rangers striker David Healy, was a relieved man. He said: “I’m pleased we are through, though obviously going down to 10 men meant that we had to change our shape.
“Credit to my players in the second half as they showed a wee bit of character and resilience.
“Quite a few things went against us on the day but all credit to Buckie – we wish them well for the rest of the season.”
The visitors should have opened the scoring after 15 minutes but from point-blank range Robbie McDaid’s downward header failed to trouble Lee Herbert in the home goal.
Linfield were reduced to 10 men after 34 minutes when centre-half Chris Shields, who had been booked only five minutes earlier, was shown a straight red card for swinging an arm towards Max Barry after he’d been fouled.
A minute later Linfield manager, legendary Northern Ireland striker David Healy, was also shown a yellow card by referee Chris Fordyce for protesting too much.
Seven minutes after the break Victoria Park erupted when Goodall spotted keeper Chris Johns off his line and lobbed a beautiful strike into the top corner from 25 yards.
The chance came from a drop ball and when the visitors fluffed their lines, young Goodall took full advantage.
McDaid thought he had equalised on the hour mark but Herbert threw himself to his left to make a brilliant save and keep out the striker’s six yard header.
But two goals within the space of 60 seconds, in the 74th and 75th minutes, turned the game on its head.
Joel Cooper rifled home a 30 yard free kick with the aid of a slight deflection before McDaid headed the ball down for substitute Niall Quinn to beat Herbert from 10 yards, again with the help of a deflection.
In the 77th minute Buckie came within an inch of equalising when Andrew MacAskill’s deep cross was met by goalscorer Goodall but his diving header rebounded off the base of the post.
Buckie boss Graeme Stewart felt his side should have won the tie.
He said: “We really should have been 2-0 up at half-time.
“But two mistakes by us led to two goals so I’m really disappointed for the boys as I felt that we deserved to win it.
“Sam Urquhart made a ridiculous challenge on the edge of our box which led to the deflected free-kick for their equaliser.
“The second goal a minute later came when Ryan Fyffe should have allowed Jack Murray to go for the header in the build up, as Jack would have won it.
“We really should be winning that game as we were 1-0 up against 10 men.
“If we’d just satin and played on the counter-attack we would probably have scored another goal but we will learn from this defeat.”
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