Dave Beasant was Nottingham Forest's shoot-out hero as the Premiership side survived the fright of their lives in the Worthington Cup against Third Division Cambridge.

Forest survived the sending off of Thierry Bonalair to beat courageous Cambridge, who recovered from 3-0 down to send the game into extra time.

Dave Bassett's 10 men, with Bonalair dismissed for hand ball on 80 minutes, showed real grit at the City Ground to hang on and then hold their nerve in the penalty shoot-out, with Beasant making three splendid saves.

Andy Gray saw Forest's first spot-kick saved by Shaun Marshall and Martin Butler fired Cambridge into the lead with their opening effort.

Chris Bart-Williams hit the target before Beasant flung himself to his left to parry Alex Russell's shot.

Wrong way

Steve Chettle scored and Forest stayed 2-1 ahead in the shoot-out when Beasant blocked Paul Wanless's effort.

However, Jean-Claude Darcheville shot over and Neil Mustoe equalised, sending Beasant the wrong way. Steve Stone restored the hosts' advantage but Andy Duncan kept his cool to send the shoot-out into sudden-death.

Craig Armstrong fired beyond Marshall and Beasant excelled himself again, blocking Trevor Benjamin's shot with his legs.

It was strikers Dougie Freedman and Marlon Harewood who were guilty of spurning the chances that would have smoothed Forest's passage into the fourth round.

Both scored but they also wasted fine opportunities.

Early three-goal lead

The game's exciting climax looked far off as the hosts cruised into a three-goal lead just after half-time.

Freedman had already sent one shot horribly wide from 10 yards out when 60 seconds later he gave his side the lead.

Duncan failed to deal with Steve Chettle's hopeful through ball and Freedman lifted his eight-yard shot over Marshall on 22 minutes.

Freedman and Stone then went close before an error by the otherwise impressive Marshall gifted Forest their second goal.

Under pressure from Jon Olav Hjelde, he failed to punch Bart-Williams' corner clear and Armstrong nodded home from four yards.

Forest then looked to have wrapped up victory when Harewood struck within a minute of the restart, the striker drilling the ball home.

Good work

But Cambridge clawed their way back into the game with three goals in 12 minutes.

First Benjamin fired the ball past Beasant on 68 minutes after good work by sub Michael Kyd.

Forest's lead was cut to 3-2 after 72 minutes, Butler taking advantage of hesitation in the home defence to collect Russell's pass and slot the ball past Beasant.

Cambridge drew level on 80 minutes, John Taylor beating Beasant from the penalty spot after his header from Russell's cross had been handled on the line by Bonalair.

The Frenchman was sent off for the offence and after being in total control for so long, 10-man Forest were suddenly on the defensive.

The dramatic game then headed for the shoot-out, where Forest edged through after a titanic tussle.