Walsall boss Mat Sadler insisted his team played well, despite needing penalties to overcome nine-man Reading in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday evening.
Creating a hatful of openings, the Saddlers were handed a two-man advantage as Royals duo David Button and Ashqar Ahmed were shown red cards, but were made to wait as the visitors did all they could to thwart their advances.
After falling behind to Tyler Sackey's 72nd minute strike, Danny Johnson levelled the scores during the last minute of second-half stoppage time to take the game to spot kicks.
Despite struggling to make use of their advantage, Sadler believes his team played well and did all that was asked of them, with the former defender going on to praise them for never giving up.
Speaking to Express & Star reporter George Bennett, Sadler said: "We played so well.
"I wrote down on my pad at half-time and said to the lads that they'd done absolutely everything that we spoke about before the game.
"But we just hadn't put the ball in the back of net. I didn't feel like I had to say more than that, we created chance after chance.
"We played against a proper team there and we've dominated the game from start to finish.
"I know that them going down to nine men makes it look like they're only playing nine men but they were sent off because we were through on goal twice.
"In a way I'm delighted with the way we won it because it shows what we're all about and it shows the character that we've got in here.
"They never give up and they keep going."