West Brom's penalty hero Ben Foster confirmed one of the worst-kept secrets in football on Wednesday — goalkeepers love shoot-outs. Foster denied Martin Samuelsen and Lee Angol from the spot to help his Premier League team overcome League One opposition 4-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup fourth-round replay at London Road.
The former Manchester United man, having steered the Baggies to a fifth-round meeting with last season's semi-finalists Reading, acknowledged the lottery from 12 yards out, while a nightmare scenario for outfield players, is the perfect stage for keepers to shine.
"I love shoot-outs — I think most goalies do. We've got nothing to lose," Foster told the BBC. "It wasn't easy, it was a very tough game. Fair play to Peterborough, they pushed us all the way. We knew they would try to get on top of us and they came at us from the start. It was a decent cup tie."
"I have to apologise to our fans, I should have saved their goal. It got a deflection and some of the pace was taken out of it, it was scrappy. But we reacted well and got the goal back quickly. After that, I thought we were the only team that looked like scoring."
Captain Darren Fletcher was the only West Brom player to miss a penalty and admitted his effort was "terrible", but it was the midfielder's impressive goal that sent the tie to extra-time after Jon Taylor's opener for the third-tier hosts.
The Scotland international said: "It was a terrible penalty from me, [I was] too busy looking at the goalkeeper rather than concentrating on what I was doing and it put us back to level pegging, but Ben has come up with another save and we're through. That was a real tough match. Their work-rate, their energy, the way they played, it was a real cup tie tonight.
"They came right at us and I thought the first 20 minutes they were the better team. But once they settled down we had some great chances as well and I think overall we had the better chances in the game. It was a great cup tie and someone has to go through and fortunately we've gone through on penalties."
Pulis heaps praise on Peterborough
West Brom manager Tony Pulis paid credit to Peterborough United following their spirited display in the FA Cup on Wednesday. While West Brom advanced to the fifth round, Pulis was quick to laud Peterborough post-match.
"That's what the FA Cup is all about, the smaller team pushing the bigger team to the limit and they did that," the Welshman said. "Credit to them and British football. It is nerve-wracking but Peterborough should take a lot of credit. We want to do well in FA Cup but it has certainly affected us with injuries and pressure on the players. I want to do as well in the cup as I have tremendous respect for it."
West Brom's win, however, might have come at a cost following a hamstring injury to Gareth McAuley, with Pulis already sweating on the fitness of Johnny Evans, Chris Brunt and Craig Dawson.
"We're more concerned with injuries, that's our biggest problem at the moment," Pulis said as he looked ahead to Saturday's showdown with Everton. They were going to have a day off on Thursday but we'll bring them all in so we can assess the damage and move on from there. Everyone is in. It'll be to check they have looked after themselves, they need to do stuff and we need to do stuff to them to get them ready for Saturday, we won't be training."
Comments
SHARE