BY CHRIS ASHMORE
The smile on his face said it all. As the Fanad United goalkeeper Mark McConigley walked out of the dressing rooms, it was understandable that he was in such good form.
“I’m buzzing,” he declared.
And, why not? First, he saved a penalty in regulation time that kept them in the game, and he then pulled off two saves in a penalty shoot-out as Fanad emerged 4-3 spot-kick winners to book their place in the quarter-finals of the FAI Junior Cup.
He was modest in his appraisal of the game-changing moments. “It’s one of those things, you can go the right day and luckily I did,” he remarked, adding: “It is small margins at this stage. Tramore is a very good side. Both teams played better against the wind. Thankfully we can come out on the right side of the result. We’re delighted to be through to the next round.”
Regarding the first penalty, he said that there was “a bit of weighing up to do” but whenever Tom Carney stepped up he had his mind made up which way to go. “Thankfully, it was the correct way,” he noted.
Turning to the shoot-out – and the fact he did not know the opposition players – he acknowledged that it a case of “trying to read them as best you can” and luckily this was a day when he saved a couple.
He also divulged that at the start of the year, they had set out a few goals and one of them was to have a good run in the FAI Junior Cup.
Noting the support and the talk in the build-up, he can see just how much it means to people connected with the club.
“It’s brilliant for the community; you can see for yourself the crowd we had,” he noted. “Everyone in the community is in the same mind frame and is eager for us to do well.”
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