Crossley is the Forest saviour

Tottenham Hotspur 1

Sheringham 33

Nottingham Forest 1

Roy 9

(Forest won 3-1 on pens ) Attendance: 31,055

MARK CROSSLEY may not be everyone's idea of goalkeeping reliability but yesterday he saw Nottingham Forest through to an FA Cup sixth-round meeting with Aston Villa after saving three penalties in the shoot-out that followed two hours in which neither side had quite done enough to earn their passage outright.

After Stuart Pearce had scored from the first penalty, Crossley saved from Clive Wilson, Ronny Rosenthal and Teddy Sheringham, which meant that Bryan Roy's miss for Forest was something he did not have to worry about for long.

Forest had established an extraordinary record at White Hart Lane: seven wins in their previous eight visits. And their hopes of maintaining it were raised by the inclusion of their two wingers Ian Woan and Steve Stone, both of whom had been struggling with fitness.

The precise touch of Woan, scorer of both Forest's goals in the 2-2 draw in the first meeting, looked like being an important element in a Forest strategy based on getting the ball into wide positions quickly, thereby creating the space in the middle of their attack for Roy and Kevin Campbell to pull defenders out of position.

On his 600th appearance for Spurs, Gary Mabbutt's experience was going to be vital, while up front the return of Chris Armstrong - who, like Woan, had scored twice at the City Ground - suggested that a Forest defence that lacked the injured Colin Cooper might also be in for a busy afternoon.

Roy's running off the ball had already caused a good deal of anxiety in the Spurs defence when, with nine minutes gone, he sped forward to pick up a through-ball from Woan. As Spurs waited for an offside flag that never came, Roy was able to get away with pushing the ball further forward than he would have wanted before lifting it over Ian Walker.

Forest continued to dictate matters. Woan probed, Campbell brought his physique to bear, and Roy was impossible to pin down, except in the sense that Colin Calderwood managed to after 19 minutes, for which he was righly booked. Spurs were arriving too late at almost every juncture and apart from the a couple of speculative efforts from distance were showing little sign of getting back into the match. But there lurked the threat of Armstrong, and when Alf Inge Haland brought him down on the edge of the area just after half an hour, Sheringham struck a superb free- kick into the top corner.

While Forest's ability to let the ball do the work still stood them in good stead, Spurs ground their way to a position of marginal superiority, and as the second half unfolded the muddy surface seemed to take more of a toll on Forest's legs. Absorbing a contest though it was, clear cut chances were virtually non-existent and extra-time looked inevitable.

When it came, both teams missed glaring opportunities, Forest when their 20-year-old substitute Paul McGregor failed to pull the ball back when Justin Edinburgh's blunder let him in; Tottenham, when Rosenthal lifted the ball over Crossley but Pearce got back to clear off the line.