Forster's lone strike ends sterling effort by Swansea
<preform>Swansea City 0 - Reading 1</br> after extra time</preform>
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Your support makes all the difference.A fifth goal of the season by Nicky Forster in the fifth minute of extra time at the Vetch Field last night took Reading into the fourth round of the FA Cup. Despite a fine performance from Swansea City, with Lee Trundle particularly prominent, the Royals went through to a home tie against Leicester or Blackpool a week on Saturday.
A fifth goal of the season by Nicky Forster in the fifth minute of extra time at the Vetch Field last night took Reading into the fourth round of the FA Cup. Despite a fine performance from Swansea City, with Lee Trundle particularly prominent, the Royals went through to a home tie against Leicester or Blackpool a week on Saturday.
The breakthrough came when Graeme Murty's free-kick from the right was headed across goal by Ivar Ingimarsson for Forster to tap the ball in from six yards, as Reading avoided being knocked out of the FA Cup in a third-round replay for the third successive season.
Ingimarsson's late equaliser in the 1-1 draw with Swansea in the original tie at the Madejski Stadium was the only goal the Royals had scored in their last five games. Their shortage of firepower wasn't helped by the absence of the veteran striker Les Ferdinand, whose hamstring strain picked up in the first tie kept him out of last night's game.
While Reading retained the side which had drawn 0-0 at Burnley on Saturday with Forster as a lone striker, Swansea replaced Alan Tate and Andy Robinson with Adrian Forbes and Ijah Anderson after their 2-2 home draw with Wycombe.
After Reading had threatened through Glen Little and Bobby Convey, Leon Britton rounded off a fine Swansea move by shooting wide in the 13th minute. Almost immediately, Paul Connor's header was headed off the line by Steve Sidwell after Trundle's corner from the left had been knocked back across goal by Garry Monk.
Reading nearly took the lead midway through the first half when Little's shot from Convey's corner was kicked away by Anderson.
But Swansea refused to panic and created two chances within a minute when Andy Gurney's free-kick was deflected for a corner and Forbes saw his 20-yard shot turned away by Hahnemann.
Next Trundle worked a neat one-two with Connor only to shoot wide from the left.
The introduction of Lloyd Owusu for Convey just after the hour almost gave Reading the lead. Owusu should have scored when Little crossed from the right but his header was pushed out by Willy Gueret.
Swansea City (4-4-2): Gueret; Ricketts, Iriekpen, Monk, Austin; Forbes, Britton, Gurney, Anderson (Robinson, 76); Connor, Trundle. Substitutes not used: Murphy (gk), Tate, Maylett, Pritchard.
Reading (4-5-1): Hahnemann; Murty, Sonko, Ingimarsson, Shorey; Little, Harper, Hughes, Sidwell, Convey (Owusu, 62); Forster. Substitutes not used: Young (gk), Brooker, Savage, Newman.
Referee: C Penton (Sussex).
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