Farsley Celtic continued their historic FA Trophy run, defeating Hungerford Town 3-2 to reach the quarter-finals, and move within two wins of Wembley.

It was a nightmare start for the Celts when they fell behind within 10 minutes, but they showed great character and spirit on the road to come on top in a see-saw battle, with debutant Harry Jessop striking the decisive blow.

For the 70 or so travelling Farsley supporters, it could have felt that a long afternoon was in the offing when the hosts went in front nine minutes in.

Chris Atkinson was adjudged to have handled the ball just outside the box, and Jake Evans stepped up to curl home a delicious free-kick past the helpless Max Dearnley.

However, Farsley, who were attacking up a significant slope in the first half, would soon strike back, the equaliser arriving through the unlikely source of Andy Butler’s right foot.

Luke Parkin swung a deep cross in from the left that Butler knocked down, before the ball deflected back in his direction, and the centre-half struck a superb first-time half-volley into the bottom corner.

Both sides would be restricted to efforts from range through the remainder of the first half, Harry Jessop attempting a speculative half-volley from distance that Jez Ward saved comfortably, before at the other end, Max Dearnley saved smartly to deny Christie Ward.

The Celts would have been delighted to go in at the break level after playing against the slope, and even more so when they were awarded a spot-kick on the hour mark.

Kyle Bailey handled the ball above his head when challenging Butler for the ball, and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

With regular penalty-taker Frank Mulhern suspended, it was left to Bobby Johnson, who made no mistake from 12 yards as he sent Jez Ward the wrong way.

This time it was the Crusaders who had to respond, and they did so, levelling within three minutes as David Bremang broke through the middle, firing home from 20 yards out.

But that setback didn’t deter Russ Wilcox’s side, and Farsley would edge their noses back in front within minutes.

Butler was involved again as he won the flick-on in the box, enabling the instinctive Harry Jessop to steal in ahead of Ward and prod home.

Hungerford would throw everything they had at Farsley over the final 20 minutes, Bremang hitting the crossbar late on, but the visitors’ grit and determination saw them across the line, and into the quarter-finals.

Hungerford Town: Ward, McGrory, Bremang, Evans (Rollinson 80), Smith (Muir 73), Ward, Bailey, Berry-Hargreaves, Tyler (c), Adjedi-Hersey (Gyebi 89), Jones. Unused subs: Delaney, Wylie, Angell, Duru.

Farsley Celtic: Dearnley, Turner, Butroid, Johnson, Butler (c), Allan, Scales, Atkinson, Ubaezuonu, Jessop, Parkin (Clayton 79). Unused subs: Osadebe, Assenso, Morgan (GK).

Attendance: 566