After the tie against Premier League Fulham finished deadlocked at one-apiece, it was Preston who – eventually – ran out 16-15 winners on spot-kicks.
Lilywhites keeper Freddie Woodman thought he’d won it for his side when he saved from Jorge Cuenca at 8-8, but Kaine Kesler-Hayden was then denied by Fulham keeper Steven Benda.
At nine-all, the keepers had to step up and Benda scored, followed by Woodman. The original penalty takers went again and all five players scored for both teams.
Then, at 15-15, Fulham’s Timothy Castagne ballooned his second spot-kick over and Ryan Ledson, who had earlier – a lot earlier – scored Preston’s goal in the first half, sent Benda the wrong way to settle the League Cup’s longest ever shootout with the 34th effort.
Reiss Nelson had scored his first Fulham goal to level the tie just after the hour mark.
On the remarkable shoot-out, Heckingbottom, below, said: “The standard of penalties was really good. When you get that deep in and the commitment you’ve shown during the game to get to penalties, then when the penalties are racking up, the longer it went on, the more I wanted to win the game.
“When you’ve put so much into it and when you’ve come out on the positive end of that, it’s really good.”
PNE keeper Woodman was just relieved to see his side come out on top after the marathon finale.
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