Walsall's Josh Gordon reflects on his road to recovery and goals for the rest of the season

Jamie Jellis saved his blushes with a dramatic 93rd-minute equaliser to send the tie to penalties before Gordon showcased immense bravery to step up and score the winning spot-kick to propel Walsall into the second round. 

Four days after his night of redemption, Gordon ended his 13-match goal drought with the opening goal in the Saddlers' stunning 4-0 slaughtering of Swindon Town at the County Ground. 

But just as his luck appeared to be on the up, he went down in a heap amid the celebrations and would play no further part in their free-scoring rout. 

Gordon would ultimately return the following weekend at Tranmere Rovers but his hamstring took another catastrophic blow when he was forced off once again at home to Cheltenham Town in late-August. 

It would mark the start of a long road to recovery and Gordon admits it was a bitter pill to swallow.

"I had goals in my head of what I wanted to achieve this season. After the Exeter game when I scored the winning penalty and I scored again at Swindon, I felt I was starting to get into my rhythm of playing well as a collective and starting to get the goals which I know I can get," he reflected.

"But football is football and unluckily I got the injury but I feel like I'm doing everything right to be hungry to come back in and continue what I was doing." 

In his absence, Nathan Lowe and Jamille Matt struck up a lethal partnership - scoring 27 goals combined with the former bagging 18 in total before his recall from Stoke City last week. 

Walsall are on the market for a new centre-forward but Danny Johnson, Albert Adomah and Gordon will all be eager to catapult themselves into contention. 

Gordon, who is now in his third spell at Bescot, marked his return with an auspicious cameo from the bench on Tuesday night, as he scored a late consolation in Walsall's 4-2 defeat at Peterborough United in the EFL Trophy round of 16.

And with Walsall having scored a formidable 48 goals in League Two, the most in the division, Gordon is relishing the prospect of featuring in a side dripping with creativity.

He continued: "I think that's the only frustrating thing being on the side lines is seeing how creative we are as a team. 

"You're looking thinking that they're are the chances that you want as a striker but we are continuing to do that. 

"So I am happy that I'm coming into a side which will continue to create chances. My goal (against Peterborough) may have come from closing down but I had a couple of chances and I was only on for 20 minutes so there's positives for me to look forward to when I'm 100 per cent fit."