Burnley fend off Reading to reach fourth round
Substitute Zian Flemming scored twice in extra time as Championship high-flyers Burnley survived a big scare to fend off a gutsy fightback from League One Reading in the third round of the FA Cup.
With the game delicately poised at 1-1, Flemming smashed in his first goal six minutes after coming on following smart work by Mike Tresor.
And the Dutch striker made it 3-1 with a simple close-range finish to end Reading's hopes.
Reading, on a four-game unbeaten run, had responded impressively to Burnley's first-half domination, upping the tempo and posing problems of their own, only to find themselves trailing with 19 minutes left when Lyle Foster scored from close range at the second attempt.
With victory within sight, however, Burnley conceded a messy equaliser as goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky made a hash of dealing with Lewis Wing's speculative strike from 35 yards.
But Flemming's introduction and impact ensured the Clarets stretched their unbeaten run to 14 games in all competitions and ended a wretched run against the Royals, which had seen them win just won just one of their previous 20 away games in all competitions.
The Clarets, second in the second tier, dominated the first half despite making 10 changes from their last league game, and could easily have been 4-0 up within 15 minutes as they showed just why they are 27 places above their opponents in the football pyramid.
Keeper David Button made the first of several fine stops to block Luca Koleosho's strike, while Foster shot just over, Koleosho dragged an effort wide, and a looping John Egan header had too much height to find the back of the net.
The Royals, sixth in League One and also chasing promotion, responded with Tyler Binden having two opportunities shortly after the half-hour mark - first with a shot that was blocked after great work by the outstanding Wing, and then sending a header over the bar from another Wing cross.
A much more even second period produced opportunities at both ends and brought two goals in six minutes in a thrilling final 20 minutes.
But Scott Parker's Burnley, whose only three defeats all season have come away from home, were able to bring on quality from the bench in the latter stages and that also resulted in an energy that proved much for Reading.
Moments after missing a decent chance to put his side ahead, Flemming found the net, and his sixth goal of the season followed 11 minutes from the end of the second period of extra time.
The Clarets have now lost just once in 24 games since a League Cup defeat against Wolves on 28 August.
Reading boss Noel Hunt:
"We obviously don't want to get beaten and don't enjoy that feeling but as a team we've had illness through the camp this week.
"But we've put in 120-plus minutes and we've have gone toe-to-toe with a Championship team.
"After the first 15 minutes we started to believe that we deserved to be on the pitch with them.
"We played our game and our style and were more aggressive and we gained control of the game, and I'm really proud of the performance and taking a Championship side all the way."
Burnley boss Scott Parker:
"It was a deserved victory. The way we applied ourselves was first class given we made so many changes with players coming into the team who have not had a lot of football.
"We started the game electric; we had a real intensity about us. They get the equaliser after a bit of a mistake from us, but then we had the other gear to go and win the game.
"We carved open a lot of chances early on, but we probably didn't hit the target enough. We had some very good chances from some very, very good play. They come back into it in certain moments, but we went on to win comfortably in the end."
