Walsall boss Mat Sadler hailed Josh Gordon’s bottle after the striker rebounded from missing a penalty in normal time to hit the winning spot-kick in a 4-3 shoot-out win over Exeter to reach the second round of the Carabao Cup.
Gordon has netted just once in his past 50 games and, with League Two side Walsall behind with nine minutes to go, he was foiled from the spot by Exeter goalkeeper Joe Whitworth.
But Jamie Jellis steered in a stoppage-time Saddlers equaliser to make it 1-1 and cancel out Millenic Alli’s first-half opener for League One Exeter – and Gordon redeemed himself in the shoot-out.
“He said it as soon as we got in the huddle – I’ll take pen number five,” Sadler revealed. “He’s a leader among the group, an incredible team player and the type I want to go to war with.
“I thought we were outstanding. In the first half we had eight big opportunities and the one bit of quality they showed was their goal.
“You need that resilience when things like that happen and resilience is a good word tonight, especially speaking about Josh, that strength of character and strength of mind to go again.”
Exeter offered little after Alli’s opener and boss Gary Caldwell admitted: “Walsall deserved to win the game in 90 minutes.
“Joe makes a brilliant penalty save and you think that’s probably enough to win us the game. But we still managed to concede even though we put six across the back.
“It’s a massive lesson. You can’t come to these games half-hearted and think you’re going to win – tonight we paid the price.”
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