The Mushies conjured an escape from a tricky position that the 1980s and 1990s TV icon would have been proud of, scoring two late goals to seal a 3-1 FFA Cup win against South Armidale United on Saturday.

Mercurial attacker Adam Watson broke the contest apart with an 89th minute goal and Dan Cannon put the stamp on a fruitful trip to SportUNE when he added OVA's third in stoppage time.

The relief was clearly evident for the Northern Inland Premier League champions, who will join Demon Knights as the region's two representatives for May's next round of Australia’s premier knockout competition.

But Saturday's hero Watson is going to miss that stage of the FFA Cup.

Not because of the calf complaint which saw him moved from midfield to up front with devastating effect, rather travel plans as Mushies coach Tim Coates revealed.

"Adam's away in Europe for three weeks at that time," Coates said.

The experienced mentor paid tribute to his side's resilience, especially after Steve Berdar's miracle 71st minute strike which levelled the tie at 1-1. Berdar's cross, come shot from millimetres inside the sideline from nearly 40 yards out, found its way past despairing OVA custodian Troy Keyte and into the top-corner, sparkling jubilation from the yellow and green faithful.

At that point Souths appeared to have all the momentum and Keyte redeemed himself with a dynamic double-save to keep the scores deadlocked with less than 10 minutes on the clock.

But it was the Mushies who found the right answers to seal the tie.

"I thought it was a good game," Coates said.

"They've made a few changes to the side since last year and full credit to them, they made it tough for us today.

"The game was up for grabs at 1-1, but we made three quick changes and they reinvigorated the team to finish well."

A quintessential showman, Watson played a starring role for OVA, who were also well-served by Michael Cooke, right winger Will Menz and Eli O’Donnell.

Watson's inventiveness was on display for his side’s opening goal in the 25th minute when he played a quick ball to Luke Purcell, catching the Souths defence flatfooted.

The final margin did not truly reflect how close Souths came to winning, with assured central defender Alex Boulus, the inventive Cai Spiers, tireless Jake Curran and skipper Paul Wright their best performers.