For the whole match, Matt Lawlor stayed still on the touchline. His fourth-tier Fleetwood side were holding the Premier League champions at Highbury Stadium, and the manager was not going to be the one who flinched first.

Then Conor Haughey stepped up and buried Fleetwood’s winning penalty.

The home end emptied onto the pitch, and the composure cracked in several directions at once. Fleetwood had beaten Arsenal 5-3 in the shootout after a 1-1 draw to advance to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

Loupalo-Bi’s lead held through to penalties

Aaron Loupalo-Bi had put Fleetwood ahead in the first half. Viktor Gyokeres levelled it just after the break. Arsenal threw everything at the League Two side after that, had 16-year-old Max Dowman sent off five minutes from time, and still could not break through before goalkeeper Jay Lynch began his night’s real work in the shootout.

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Haughey, who had not even practised penalties before kick-off, scored the one that mattered.

Lawlor broke on contact.

“I was trying to not cry and I didn’t. I’ve managed to hold it,” he told reporters afterwards.

He also said it was the biggest night in the club’s history.

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‘Done my neck in’

Then came the pile-on. In the pitch invasion that followed the final kick, with players, staff and jubilant Fleetwood supporters flooding the grass, Lawlor was taken down by what talkSPORT described as a rugby-style tackle. The Fleetwood boss told the station he had “done his neck in” in the process.

Fleetwood are into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

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