The second half was far more exciting with Steve Forbes striking home for Colchester in the 48 ^th minute. All 91 of the Colchester support went mad while the ball was re-spotted.

Their celebration was to be short lived though as the game played down the wing with Hargreaves making a super cross for Neil Grayson to head in to equalise within a minute of the Colchester goal.

Pressure then passed from end to end as both teams made spirited attempts to score with saves being made by both DeBont and Emburson.

Full time came and the pressure continued throughout extra time until the inevitable happened with the referee blowing up to bring us into a penalty shoot out. Pridictions in the Meadow End terrace had expected this from the kick-off but worried fans were wishing for the return of Dean "Deano" Smith.

Hereford must have been expecting this as Graham Turner confirmed after the match that the team had been practicing penalties for an hour on Monday night to help sort out the taker's, the order and the aim of each shot.

Neil Grayson was the first man to step forward to face Emburson. His shot drove into the net to start the quintet to goals. Chris Hargreaves, Richard Walker, Brian McGorry and Rob Warner followed suit. Colchester also drove their first four shots past Andy DeBont who did manage to get his fingers to one of them. The dubious task of levelling the score then fell to Colchester's Simon Betts who had been brought on as a substitution.

His shot was low and to the left but Andy DeBont (Penalty Hero) made his dive at full stretch to push the shot past the post. The instant he touched the ball, fans were on the pitch to congratulate him. Simon Betts had fallen to his knees.

Hereford United were through to the third round which would bring Tranmere Rovers to Edgar Street.