After Palmi Arinbjornsson had been shown a straight red card after just 17 minutes and with no goalkeeper on the bench, Kandola bravely stepped up to wear the gloves for the remainder of the game and immediately saved Kamari Swyer’s penalty. Despite eventually losing the game by five goals, under-21s head coach Collins was pleased with the improvement of his team in the second half and has singled out Kandola’s courage to come on in between the sticks.
On the game and going down to 10 early on
“What a strange game. I thought we started the game really poorly in the first 10 minutes and I was disappointed with how we administered the game plan which we’d worked on.
“Then we started to get a foothold in it and we produced a couple of moves. Then the goalkeeper gets sent off, it happens and goalie’s every so often make mistakes – I can’t remember the last time Palmi made one.
“It was my decision not to put a goalkeeper on the bench because I wanted to put the five outfield players on.
“Straight away we’re in trouble and then Kam saves the penalty which gives us a bit of hope. Even with 10 men I thought we lost the plot a little bit and we were affected by the fact we’d lost our goalkeeper, which is understandable.”
On improving in the second half
“After they’d scored we pulled ourselves together and for 30/35 minutes in the second half we were excellent.
“I was actually thinking I could give them great praise at the end because they did very well in the second half. Maybe we ran out of steam at the very end and capitulated.
“They’re still poor goals, whether you’ve got 10 or 11. Maybe we acted a bit naively at the end, perhaps because the game had gone.
“It’s disappointing for it to be five because I think with three, we could’ve been proud of ourselves playing without a goalkeeper.”
On what he can take from the game
“There were some great examples of character. I thought Ty Barnett showed terrific character in the second half tracking back and working hard. It was Josh’s (Esen) first game in midfield for us and he was faced with that – I thought he was excellent in midfield.
“Nathan (Fraser) always battles for us and Tinks (Tyler Roberts) shows great spirit and the back players got themselves going.”
On Kam Kandola stepping up to go in goal
“When you’re in that moment, it takes a lot to say I’ll do it. To know you’re going on for a penalty and plus you’ve got 70/75 minutes to play in goal in a proper game of football, it takes courage.
“Straight away he said ‘yes, I’m up for that’. It says everything about the boy, what a kid.
“He made some brilliant saves and one or two mistakes, but you’d expect that. Credit to him and hopefully that was an experience for him – not one he’ll have expected but hopefully he’ll gain something as a person and character from it. He deserves to and comes out of it with great credit.”
