Defender Jack Sanders spoke after Friday’s shoot-out loss to Oxford United

Jack Sanders was quick to rally around Jonathan Leko and Connor Lemonheigh-Evans after the pair missed penalties in the shoot-out defeat to Oxford United on Friday night.

After going toe-to-toe with the Championship outfit at Stadium MK, a 1-1 draw after two-hours of play sent the third round tie to spot-kicks. And with the duo not finding the back of the net, it was the U’s who progressed into the fourth round draw.

Sanders, who took the first spot kick for Paul Warne’s side, said the courage to step up for the team in the shoot-out means more than the outcome of whether the ball goes in or not, and that no blame would be laid at the door of either player who missed.

“Anyone who misses, hats off to you anyway because it takes a lot of courage, so we’re not holding anything but respect for Leko or Connor because they stepped up to take one,” he said. “It’s a part of the game, it’s the toss of a coin. You just pray there’s an outcome before the end of the game.”

He continued: “There was no talk of it before the game, I think it was just down to how tired boys were at the end. I know Collo (Aaron Collins) would have taken one but he was so fatigued by the end. I was more than happy to take one, and if you miss you miss.

“I’ve not taken many in important games, but in training sometimes, I’ll have the confidence to take one, and luckily this one went in.”

On the whole, Sanders, like head coach Warne, felt Dons did more than enough to book their spot in the fourth round draw.

He added: “We’re really disappointed not to get through to the next round. I think we were worthy winners, we had quite a few chances to do so. We can take confidence against a Championship side and we more than matched them. All in all, we’re pretty disappointed.

“A second goal would have been crucial for us, but that’s football. We can’t dwell on it, we had plenty of chances.

“This FA Cup game gave us a bit of a release from the league, a few of the boys could showcase the levels they’ve got against a Championship side. You couldn’t find a player who didn’t reach the right levels. With the team we’ve got, we can match anyone on our day.

“We need to use this game as a confidence booster going into the rest of the league campaign. If we can match-up against a Championship side, essentially we should be competing every week in League Two.”