NINE man Worthing produced a heroic performance last night to reach the club's first Senior Cup final in 22 years.

Rebels had Danny Smith and Mark Burt sent-off in the first 38 minutes of a highly charged semi-final in the Horsham mud.

But by that stage they already led through Marc Rice's disputed penalty and a strike by Smith.

The thin blue line then held out against increasingly unimaginative Crawley attacking.

On a morasse of a pitch, Reds were unable to stretch play and their uninspired barrage of high balls down the slope never looked like bringing rewards.

Rebels' defensive effort was built around an immense display by Damien Webber, the former Crawley centre back.

He was in the way of everything. At one stage, he headed away from his six yard box, then charged out of the penalty area to win the 50-50 ball with a crunching tackle.

Behind him, Phil Reid's handling was faultless and, further forward, Rice, Tony Holden and Simon Funnell worked tirelessly as an unlikely midfield trio.

Webber admitted: "Everyone was absolutely magnificent. It just shows how much this cup means to Worthing.

"It's always going to be difficult with 11 against nine but I thought, if we could hold them out for 20 minmutes after half-time, we'd have a chance."

It was an explosive contest from the start and the arguments started when John Mackie's sliding tackle on Ben Carrington was judged a foul by referee Matthew Knight.

Rice drilled in the 12th minute penalty and things got even better for Worthing nine minutes later when Smith's low shot beat Adrian Blake at his near post.

Then came the dismissals. First Smith on 33 minutes after tangling with Ben Abbey, then Burt as players confronted each other when Ryan Andrews chopped down Carrington.

Reds thought a third should have followed as they claimed handball against Rice when he somehow got back to clear off his line from Richard Thompson.

That came on 44 minutes and it was to prove Worthing's biggest scare of the night.

Apart from a header wide by Abbey, Reds produced nothing in the second half and Worthing's main worry was whether the game might be abandoned as rain swept across the already sodden pitch.

They needn't have worried. Referee Knight revealed: "Once we had got that far with so much controversy, we were going through to the end, even if it meant extra-time."

Worthing: Reid, O'Sullivan, Webber, Cox, Kennett, Funnell, Smith, Burt, Rice, Holden (sub Simmonds 89), Carrington (sub Weston 89). Unused sub: Robinson. Yellow card: O'Sullivan. Red card: Smith, Burt.

Crawley: Blake, Stevens, Payne, Taylor (sub Wackett 63), Mackie, Warmington, Hawthorne, Andrews (sub Thompson 40), Abbey, Warden, Barber (sub Sweet 56). Yellow card: Hawthorne, Andrews, Abbey.

Attendance: 281.

Man of the match: Webber (Worthing)

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