GOAL hero Craig Robinson hailed Warrington Town’s amazing team spirit after a gutsy rearguard effort knocked League Two side Exeter City out of the FA Cup.

Almost 2,500 supporters packed into Cantilever Park like sardines went as bananas as the 32-year-old defender when his strike from a corner gave the Yellows the perfect start before the players dug deep into their reserves of energy to hold off an Exeter barrage in the final 30 minutes.

He was left almost speechless by the scenes at the end, when fans who invaded the pitch chair-lifted the players back into the changing rooms like champions.

“I’m honestly lost for words,” said Robinson, whose brother Karl – the former Town midfielder and now manager of MK Dons – was watching from the sidelines and analysing the game for the BBC2 television audience.

“I’ve said to everyone, this is what you dream of – nights like this in the FA Cup. I’ve been dreaming of it all week and I can’t believe it’s happened.”

Robinson, who was player manager of Ashton United before joining Shaun Reid’s Town set-up, said he was not sure what happened after he got a touch on David Mannix’s corner for the seventh-minute winner.

“I don’t even know what I did,” he said. “I can’t tell you about it.

“We’d worked on it in training and we’d just said to be a nuisance from the corners.

“I just made a run for the near post and I think I got a touch on it.

“After that, I just remember it hitting the back of the net and hearing the cheering. I just ran away like a lunatic.

“If it touched somebody else on the way in, so be it. I’m not bothered, we won the game and that’s all that matters.”

Robinson has been plagued by injury this season and it was a battle for him to even get on the pitch, never mind deliver the warrior performance that made him one of Town’s stand-out performers.

“I’ve been struggling since the first game of the season with a calf injury and I’ve been in and out of the team,” he explained.

“I’ve tried to manage it. I didn’t play on Saturday in order to rest it. I trained on Monday and felt it again and so I didn’t train for the rest of the week.

“I’ve been hammering the physio treatment but there was no way I was going to miss this game.”

And his display of guts was replicated throughout the team of part-timers across the 90 minutes against full-time opponents who were never allowed to settle.

“The lads dug in at the end and it was a pleasure to be out there with them,” he said.

“To have those players alongside me, it was great out there.

“The goal may have come early but with the spirit and togetherness of this team I believed that we could hang on.

“We’ve not conceded many goals this season, we’ve done that for most of the games this season and I’m glad it worked out for us.”

He put it down to a win for ‘team spirit’ and said there had been a lot of excitement in the hours leading up to the kick off.

“I think the nerves had been kicking in all week but there was excitement in all of us being together,” he said.

“We met up at 2.30pm and some people were saying that was too early but the lads love being together, the togetherness and the spirit in the dressing room.

“Every time we’re together it’s a great atmosphere so to be together all afternoon, have our food together and relax, it was brilliant.”

He was not the only man in a Yellow shirt to reveal he had struggled to get any sleep the night before the game, though the plasterer at least did not have to put in a shift before kick off on match day.

“I couldn’t sleep at all last night,” he said.

“I tried to go bed early but it was 2am and I couldn’t sleep. I was going to have a lie in but didn’t sleep so I ended up getting up at 7.30am and taking the little one to school.”

And who does he want to draw in the second round on Monday?

“I’m not even thinking about that,” he said.

“I just want to enjoy this and I’ll think about that on Monday.”