Ah, the FA Cup. All its grandeur and tradition, those vintage rites, the time-honoured rituals; the tingle of anticipation was palpable as time trudged towards 3pm.

And then, after a peep from Harrison Blair’s whistle, a football match took place under the most beautiful of blue skies. Who’d have thought the next two hours would bring such an array of emotions.

It’s tin foil trophy season, and for the Rebels they’ll be kept out of the cupboards for a little longer as goals from Jack Spong, Tommy Willard and Mo Faal ensured a memorable victory in exhilarating style over a resilient Havant & Waterlooville side.

In what many would have expected a fairly routine victory against lower-division opposition, what they got was quite the opposite.

There were fewer in the crowd than this time last week but it felt much the opposite ahead of kick-off as the noise swirled around Woodside Road. They had come to see a feast of goals, but they’d be made to wait until the 46th minute before a shot on target was registered on Ben Dudzinski’s goal.

Prolific goalscorer Mo Faal slotted straight into the XI following his arrival from Crawley Town in the week, but it took some time for the new #12 to get up to speed against an embattled defence that threw bodies on the line time and time again.

Akin to last week’s goalless affair with Hornchurch, it took some time for Worthing to truly get going. Danny Cashman tried to work the ball into the channels, but the visitors kept their fettle, kept their heads and denied the hosts of any real attacking opportunities.

With 22 minutes played Worthing paid the price. The Rebels caught on the counter, the most delicate of through-balls found the run of Keane Anderson on the right-hand side of the box. A touch to set, a look up at goal and a fizzing drive into Chris Haigh’s corner. 1-0, and a home crowd stunned into silenced.

The Hawks almost doubled their advantage as Harvey Laidlaw sent a fierce cross into the box that evaded the bodies and so nearly the top corner as it clanked against the outside of Chris Haigh’s post.

As the referee called time on the first chapter of the match, The Rebels had to be prized from the ropes. Havant & Waterlooville arrived with a gameplan, and they executed it to perfection. Closing every angle, there was just no where for Agutter’s side to move, to breathe.

“It might be a game of two halves”, bellowed an optimistic Worthing supporter high up in the Main Stand. He was right, in the end. From the sound of the very next whistle, Worthing hounded the Hawks high up the pitch, forcing them deeper as they dug a trench on the edge of their box.

Cashman headed straight into the ‘keeper’s arms, Faal saw a rifled drive palmed over. Then there were the times when Havant’s last defender stretched to make a crucial clearance as Cashman looked to get in behind.

Fluidity is a must from an Agutter side, and there were glimpses of this in the second half. Sam Packham was in the mood to make something happen, and his teasing crosses from the right-hand side were a constant threat.

But it was Spong who made something happen. Standing over the free-kick just outside the box, a touch to the right, he was the calmest man on the pitch and would soon be wheeling away in delight. Aiming for where crossbar meets post, it angles beautifully over the wall and into the corner. Lift off. And a first home goal of the campaign.

It was practically all Worthing in the second half but they would find themselves behind again just moments after the leveller. It’s a simple cross into the box that isn’t stopped, isn’t cleared as Ryan Seager bundled the ball over the line to the delight of the travelling throng. Last year this was a league fixture, though this was as far from last season’s Worthing-dominated battles as you could possibly get.

The visitors looked to have booked their place in the next round until Cashman started to get on the ball a bit more, and it was his pace and directness that caused a calamitous final five minutes for the visiting Hawks. Relief, again. A lolloping ball in the box finds Willard with just enough space to hammer home from a matter of yards out. Game on.

Delight for the home crowd, but there was more to come. Catch a few breaths, and Woodside Road erupts. Agutter as jubilant as anyone when Faal headed home a vicious cross to complete the comeback.

And then it ended, just like that. For 85 minutes Havant & Waterlooville played with their hearts, but as the net rumbled and their legs wore heavy, there was only one side who would be advancing. It’s the most Worthing of victories on the most momentous of afternoons, and everything just seemed right in the world again.