Forest beat 10-man Exeter City 4-2 on penalties in FA Cup drama

EXETER, England :Premier League high-fliers Nottingham Forest struggled past 10-man Exeter City 4-2 on penalties to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup after being held 2-2 by their third tier opponents.

Forest, who had started the night with a second-string side at St James Park, will now host top flight rivals Ipswich in the last 16 in March.

The lowest-ranked club left in the competition gave Forest, who are third in the top flight and now the highest-placed team remaining in the draw - a tough time after taking a fifth minute lead.

They then fought back from 2-1 down to end the second half with everything still to play for and the crowd holding their breath and hoping for another major upset.

Exeter's Ed Turns was shown a straight red card in the 87th for a high challenge on second half substitute Morgan Gibbs-White but they still had several good chances after that as the game stayed deadlocked through extra time.

Forest, who made 10 changes to the side that beat Brighton & Hove Albion 7-0 in their previous Premier League match, had Nigeria striker Taiwo Awoniyi treated on the pitch and taken off on a stretcher in extensive second half stoppage time.

"It was a hard game, we had a lot of setbacks," a relieved Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo told ITV television.

"I think we started the game in a bad way but the response was good.

"It was tough but happy in the end that we are going through."

Striker and captain Josh Magennis had the Grecians fans dreaming after Forest reserve goalkeeper Carlos Miguel fumbled an attempted catch and he was there to give Exeter a shock lead.

The hope of a similar upset to nearby Plymouth Argyle's 1-0 defeat of mighty Liverpool on Sunday died down 10 minutes later, when Ramon Sosa levelled