ROCKY BAPTISTE has travelled far and wide in his career, from Chelsea to Luton and on through the divisions, but rarely has a goal meant as much to the 35-year-old as his late equaliser for Havant and Waterlooville yesterday. Rocky V? Rocky VI? Even Sly Stallone would have struggled to script the escape that put the Blue Square South side into the draw for the fourth round.

Battered, bruised, a goal behind and down to 10 men – like their opponents – after a full-scale brawl, Havant and Waterlooville’s Cup run was coming to an ignominious end at the Liberty Stadium when Baptiste, who is doing the Knowledge in preparation for his next career as a taxi driver, navigated his way past the Swansea defence to drive home the equaliser four minutes from time.

The striker was brought up near Wembley Stadium and his most precious FA Cup memory was his goal for Farnborough Town in a 5-1 defeat by Arsenal at Highbury five years ago. Now his grandchildren will have to listen to another unforgettable tale.

“People do take this competition for granted,” said Charlie Oatway, Havant’s player/coach. “But we don’t. We had two or three people coming into our dressing-room afterwards, including our chairman, with tears in their eyes. That’s what it means to a club like this.”

Though ravaged by injuries and aware that Swansea, the League One leaders, are unlikely to be so profligate in front of goal again, the club with the long name and the short history will fancy their chances of furthering their journey in the replay at West Leigh Park on Tuesday week.

Baptiste’s first call after the match was to instruct his wife to record his goal on Match of the Day. He might not want to replay his close-range miss from a header in the first half nor record for posterity how often the width of the crossbar kept his side in the tie. Jason Scotland, Leon Britton and Darren Pratley all crashed shots of varying velocity against the woodwork and if Kevin Scriven, the talented young Havant keeper, deserved his share of good fortune for a series of fine saves, he will still wonder how the scores were still level after 73 minutes.

The visitors’ defence, superbly marshalled by Jay Smith and Phil Warner, had smothered the threat of Scotland but had been stretched to breaking point down the wings by Tom Butler and Andy Robinson.

As Havant began to tire, Robinson finally struck with a classical right-foot free kick from 25 yards in the 74th minute that seemed to signal the end of Havant’s increasingly desperate resistance. Far from it.

Three minutes later, Havant’s Brett Poate was given a straight red card for a late challenge on Andrea Orlandi and tempers, which had been simmering for a few minutes, boiled over into a full-scale bout of pushing and shoving. Having worked so hard and waited so long to edge ahead, Swansea should not have been drawn into a fracas. Alan Tate, the Swansea captain, was also shown a red card for his part in the melee and a match that Swansea had under control spun crazily out of their grasp.

“The sendings-off disorganised them a bit,” said Oatway. “But we were in the last chance saloon.” Without Tate, Swansea lost concentration for a second and Baptiste was given space to chest the ball down and steady himself for a shot which angled into the far corner right in front of 368 delirious Havant supporters.

Swansea manager Roberto Martinez was less than happy with the referee for not cracking down on the nonleague side’s physical approach. “Andrea was lucky to get up and walk away after that challenge,” said the Spaniard. But his side should have settled the tie well before Baptiste produced his own version of the Rocky Horror Show.

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