Okojie is Hastings' shoot-out hero

Their home replay against Conference North side Harrogate Town went to penalties after a 1-1 draw. Tom Platt missed Harrogate’s second kick and Hastings scored their first four, giving Danny Ellis the chance to win it.

But he put his kick over the bar and it was into sudden death. Lee Elam then missed for the visitors and Okojie kept his nerve to find the net and give Hastings a 5-4 victory which earns them a trip to Middlesbrough.

He joined Hastings this year, having previously played his Ryman League football in Essex for Harlow, Redbridge, Brentwood, Aveley and Concord.

Hastings had earlier suffered heartbreak when the Yorkshire side netted a 90th-minute equaliser. Lee Carey had put the hosts ahead with a penalty after Zac Attwood was brought down in the first minute of the second half.

It looked as if it would be enough, but then home keeper Matt Armstrong-Ford, severely handicapped by a knee injury but forced to play because no-one else was eligible, could only flap a corner down to the feet of Platt, who netted a simple volley to force extra time.

The visitors had certainly had the pick of the chances but their finishing let them down and the goal was only their second effort on target.

Hastings, watched by a sell-out club record crowd of 4,028, shook off the disappointment and had much the better of extra time. They came closest when Attwood fired in a shot that looked goalbound until it struck Okojie and bounced away.

One noteworthy fact of the night was that during the 120 hard-fought, tense minutes referee Mick Russell did not need to show a single card.

So redoubtable Hastings player-manager Sean Ray becomes the first Ryman League boss to take his side to this stage of the competition since Johnson ‘Drax’ Hippolyte in 2004-05. His Yeading team lost 2-0 to Newcastle in a home tie switched to QPR.

It may seem a tall order for Hastings to do better at the Riverside but consider this.

In comparatively recent times Middlesbrough have played third-round ties against two clubs who were at the time members of the Isthmian League: Wycombe in 1975 and Bishop’s Stortford in 1983.

They have also faced two non-league opponents who were former Isthmian clubs: Wimbledon, then in the Southern League, in 1977, and Sutton United, then in the Conference, in 1988.

What do those four ties have in common? They all went to replays before Middlesbrough scraped through.