Scott Davies produced goalkeeping heroics to hold off Rotherham on Tuesday night – but preferred to heap praise on the defence in front of him.
The stopper made two stunning saves with Town 2-1 up late on, tipping over Lee Frecklington’s fierce drive with one hand before stretching to turn James Tavernier’s effort around the near post.
It ensured a safe passage into the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Northern Area Final at Highbury on the night, although Davies gave huge credit to the players in the back line.
“The lads put their bodies on the line when they had to,” said Davies. “It’s nice to make saves, do things at important moments and help the team - but that’s just my job.
“The defence were outstanding; (Nathan) Pond, (Mark) Roberts, (Conor) McLaughlin and (Charlie) Taylor, and even (Ryan) Cresswell when he came on at the end.”
Davies could do little to prevent Nouha Dicko’s equaliser for The Millers in the second half, after he initially parried away a deflection off Pond, but the keeper felt Town deserved the win once McLaughlin had scored his wonder-goal.
“I thoroughly enjoyed that game,” he said. “Over the course of the game we showed a lot of bottle and desire to finally get over the line.
“In the last couple of performances we’ve not had that little bit of luck that we need, but thankfully we got that (against Rotherham). Over the ninety minutes we deserved the win.”
“We’re in the Northern Final now with two legs and every chance of going to Wembley, so it would be great to see the numbers doubled here and hopefully we can achieve that dream.”
Saturday’s game at Rochdale now represents a chance for Town to return to form in League Two – something Davies also realises with a long season still ahead.
“It’s all well and good winning the cup games but we need to get back to our bread and butter league matches,” he said.
“It’s going to be a tough game (at Rochdale) but we’ll work hard to recover from Rotherham. We’ve worked on trying to be hard to beat, and we’ll look to come away with the points.”