Town keeper Cieran Slicker saved two penalties to help his loan side Barnet to a 2-1 victory away against Crewe Alexandra in League Two this afternoon.
Evoking memories of legendary Blues’ stopper Paul Cooper, Slicker first saved Josh March’s spot-kick on 61, then turned the second from Max Sanders onto the bar with his feet 11 minutes later.
"The first one, I sort of got a gauge on where he was going, credit to the staff behind the scenes, they do a lot of work on it. Kirk [Rayment, chief analyst] and Craig [Holloway, goalkeeper-coach] watched and I was told where he was going to go,” Scotland international Slicker said.
"And the second one, was sort of just feel. It’s quite rare and I was buzzing with the two saves and to help the team get the win.”
Following the second stop, Slicker, 22, making his sixth appearance for the Bees, was surrounded by his delighted teammates: "Firstly, after the save, I didn’t know where the ball was. You can see on the video, I did a little twirl!
"Then I heard it hit the crossbar and Tavs [Nikola Tavares] has done amazing to put his body on the line and clear it, that was obviously most important.
"But once the ball had gone out of play, it was just carnage. I don’t really remember it, to be honest. It’s a great feeling.”
Manager Dean Brennan added: "Cieran did brilliantly with the penalties. He read the first and pushed away the second one with his legs – although that one shouldn’t have been given as it was a dive. He has got a great football brain.
"It was a dramatic game with the persistence and hard work shown by the players getting us the three points.”
Crewe manager Lee Bell claimed his side ought to have been awarded even more penalties: "We had plenty of chances to score more goals, but we missed two penalties, which you don’t see very often. There wasn’t a lot of football in the game, but we should have won it comfortably.
"I thought Barnet would play a bit more, but they slowed everything down. But we should have two more penalties, the second when there was a handball late on. You don’t win games if you are not ruthless in both boxes.”
Cooper, the number one in Sir Bobby Robson's FA Cup and UEFA Cup-winning sides, was famed for his penalty-saving antics while at Town, stopping two in a 1-1 draw with Derby at Portman Road in March 1980. That season, 1979/80, Cooper kept out eight out of the 10 penalties he faced.