Tamworth Goalkeeper Singh Reflects on FA Cup Penalty Shootout Heroics

Tamworth manager Andy Peaks stated he consistently believed Jas Singh would perform one or two saves during the penalty shootout. Tamworth goalkeeper Jasbir Singh confessed he always had a feeling he might become the Lambs’ hero in the FA Cup penalty shootout. Following Tamworth’s 1-1 draw against Burton Albion, the bottom club in League One, on Sunday at the Pirelli Stadium, the match proceeded to penalties. Singh then made saves against Danilo Orsi and Ben Whitfield, preceding Haydn Hollis’s successful conversion of the Lambs’ decisive spot-kick. Singh commented to BBC Radio WM, “It’s all down to instinct. I just try to go the right way – and hope that my ability is up to it – and that I can get a hand or a leg on it.” It is suggested that Tamworth benefited, to Burton’s displeasure, from the penalties being executed in front of the away section, where the visiting supporters were already chanting ‘Jas Singh, in the middle of our goal’ to the goalkeeper. Singh acknowledged, “You have adrenaline flowing through you. And you’re just hoping you can be the hero.” Following a goalless initial 90 minutes in the second-round fixture, Mason Bennett scored to give Burton the lead two minutes into extra time, but Ronan Maher equalized for Tamworth only two minutes thereafter. Tamworth manager Andy Peaks informed BBC Radio WM, “I was quite chilled. I was already just so proud of the lads for taking it as far as they had. And I always had it in my head that Jas might save a couple – because he’s so good at stopping them.” He further added, “I just wasn’t sure how many we’d score as we haven’t had a penalty at all in the league this year and nobody’s had to take one”. The Tamworth players and their management staff engaged in various forms of celebration on Sunday evening. Singh, a 34-year-old Birmingham native who started his career at Shrewsbury Town, stated, “I feel on top of the world. But I am a bit croaky after the team night out.” Peaks additionally remarked, “It was always the plan for the players to have their ‘Christmas do’ – and we all came back on the coach together. But I wasn’t invited.” He continued, “I actually went back to my local pub where we live in Kettering, where they were licking their wounds as they’d lost. So I just had a couple of beers with them, helped them drown their sorrows and came home.” Having now eliminated two League One clubs, following their victory over Huddersfield Town in the first round, attention turns to their next opponent in Monday evening’s third-round draw. Peaks commented, “These are the sort of moments you live for in football and the boys have earned the right for a big draw.” He added, “As a club we’d love to draw one of the big clubs away and have a great day out. I’m personally a Leeds fan and I’m sure Jas would love to get Liverpool.” Tamworth’s most recent appearance in the FA Cup third round occurred in 2012, when they defeated fellow non-league teams Hinckley and Gateshead on their path, before suffering a 2-0 defeat to Everton, who were eventual beaten semi-finalists that season, at Goodison Park, with goals from Johnny Heitinga and a Leighton Baines penalty. Tamworth manager Andy Peaks and goalkeeper Jas Singh provided their comments to Kath Stanczyszyn of BBC Radio WM.