Darren Randolph, take a bow.
Goalkeepers save, that's what they do but Darren Randolph - as usual - was phenomenal on Saturday night. He kept us in the game numerous times, from his double-save in the first half to his last gasp fingertip touch in the dying minutes.
https://twitter.com/RTEsoccer/status/929461930699272193
You can be sure that the man was absolutely beaten after his tiring performance between the sticks but regardless, he still politely smiled as he accepted his award for man of the match and faced RTÉ reporter, Tony O'Donoghue, with the same smile. He seemed like a very cool and collected man for someone who had kept his country in the tie.
"It's all down to Tuesday," he stated. "[We] came over here and obviously kept things tight and hung onto the ball. We knew we'd have to and as you said, it's now on to Tuesday."
We were all amazed by his keeping, even though it's nothing new to us at this stage but Randolph isn't a man to praise himself, he's a 'keeper, it's what he does.
"I knew I'd have something to do at some point, just a case of when. Thankfully, I was able to do my bit for the team tonight. [When asked about the double-save:] Yeah, it's what you do. It's what you work on in training. Luckily enough today though, it paid off."
The concept now for Tuesday is simple, no talking about an away goal or a 'score-draw'. We go out on the pitch at the Aviva and we win and that's something that Randolph believes we can do despite tonight's performance.
It might even take longer than 90 minutes and if it does, Randolph will be just as calm facing a line-up of penalty kicks as he was standing in front of O'Donoghue.
"We'll be the home team. We kept things tight tonight and [we'll] try to nick a goal but now we move on to Tuesday and we go all out. [Speaking about the prospect of penalties on Tuesday] I'll worry about that when the time comes."
Darren Randolph - as O'Donoghue concluded - "You could be the hero then, you're man of the match tonight."
