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Lafferty actually came close to breaking the deadlock on six minutes when his thundering header crashed off the Gunners cross bar, however his day ended on a sour note when he was somewhat harshly sent-off with half-an-hour of the contest remaining.

“Kyle is still a young kid making his way in the game,” said Coyle.  “He has a big future, I think, ahead of him and he showed that against quality opposition.  Kyle had a great opportunity early on, as it was it never went in, but we were well in the game and always looked a threat.”

Coyle also had sympathy for the former NFC Kesh player’s straight red-card for a rash challenge on Arsenal star Gilberto.  “I work with Kyle Lafferty and I’m not standing up for the kid but there’s not a bad bone in his body,” declared Coyle.

“He's mis-controlled a ball and he went to recover it, and I think he went with one foot.  It certainly wasn’t two-footed.  I asked the referee at the end of the game; he was in a good position and he called it very quickly, but he felt Kyle went over the ball to hurt the lad; which is just not in his game and I said that.”

Elsewhere in the third round of the competition, David Healy ended his nine game goal drought when he found the net in Fulham’s 2-2 home draw with League One side Bristol Rovers, while there was also disappointment for defender Jonny Evans whose first game for Sunderland since arriving on-loan from Old Trafford ended in an embarrassing 3-0 home defeat to Wigan Athletic.

Meanwhile former Northern Ireland striker Iain Dowie was ecstatic with his team’s performance following their astonishing 4-1 success at Ewood Park over Mark Hughes’ Blackburn Rovers.

Dowie, whose side now face a home tie in round four against either Walsall or Millwall, singled out another former international for special praise.  “Michael Hughes dictated things and probed and played some great balls early on,” said Dowie.  “His performance gave us the belief that we could compete at this level.”

One of Dowie’s former international strike partners Jimmy Quinn also nearly provided an upset when his non-league Cambridge United outfit came close to knocking Mick McCarthy’s Wolves out of the competition at Molineux.

The Blue Square side eventually went down 2-1 despite being a goal up until the 69th minute but Quinn still lavished praise on his side though for taking game right to the wire.

“I thought we got our tactics just right, admitted Quinn, “the players took on board everything I asked of them. It was disappointing to lose the game especially as their winner came two minutes from the end, but I’m very, very proud of the performance.”

However there will be no FA Cup run this season for Maik Taylor as Birmingham slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Huddersfield, while despite another excellent performance from young striker Martin Paterson, Scunthorpe United went out to a single goal at fellow Championship side Preston.