Sam Saunders admits he felt a huge sense of relief after Paul Hayes buried a penalty with the final kick of the game to sink Exeter on Tuesday night.

The 31-year-old had put Blues ahead with his second goal for the club after seven minutes but missed a great chance in stoppage time after being put through on goal by Wycombe’s captain.

Saunders, who is on loan from Brentford, said the miss was playing on his mind as Hayes ran up to take the spot kick but also admitted he was glad to see the skipper redeem himself for a mistake against Cheltenham on Saturday.

“I thought that was it,” said the midfielder when asked if he thought he’d squandered Blues’ best chance of finding a winner.

“I had nothing left, absolutely nothing left. The thought of running back to the half-way line was awful, and then we got a free-kick and I just thought to myself ‘please have one good delivery left in there’.

“It was in there, Aaron’s done well and got the penalty. Hayesy, massive credit to take that penalty at that time in the game with all the pressure that was on it.

“He was a bit upset with his mistake last week with the back heel. We bailed him out last week and he bailed us out this week so we’re even now.”

Gareth Ainsworth said in his post match press conference that it was a deliberate ploy to leave three men – one of which was Saunders – forward when the Grecians were pushing hard for a winner of their own.

That tactic paid off handsomely and its success owed a lot to the endeavour of a team who had been under the cosh for the majority of the second half.

Saunders said: “Even in the 102nd minute we just kept going. I think in the end we were either going to take three points or nothing as we were taking a few gambles because we wanted to get the win and it paid off.

“Sometimes it’s your night and tonight it was. Exeter are a good footballing side and they played us off the park in the second half. We dug in, hung in there and got a penalty at the end.

“We’re going to go home delighted, they’re going to go home upset and that’s football sometimes. Three more games, three more performances, dust down the knocks and it’s going to be exciting.”

The Bees loanee left Adams Park clutching a bottle of bubbly after picking up the man-of-the-match award, but he also departed the ground with a slight sense of regret that he hadn’t reached a career milestone.

“I could have had a couple more goals tonight, which would have been nice,” he said.

“That was my 49th career goal so I’m looking for that 50th and it would have been nice to get it tonight. I had a good couple of opportunities but hopefully I’ve saved one for Saturday.”