The defender had missed just two of the 20 penalties he’d taken in his young career, so he was more than happy to face the responsibility of taking the fifth kick for Wolves in a shootout when all his other teammates had scored against Norwich City. By dispatching his spotkick with ease, he confirmed the under-23s place in Monday's final and a visit of Stoke City.
On victory in the semi-final
“It was an unbelievable feeling. It was a hard game, a really hard game, but those are the games you want to be involved in growing up as a kid and for your development. They’re the games that you dream of.
“There’s been loads of games this season, and we’ve only had one defeat in about five months, something like that, so it will be unbelievable to finish it off in the final and get promoted.”
WHAT A MOMENT!!
— Wolves Academy (@WolvesAcademy) May 17, 2022
😆👏 pic.twitter.com/b8lBXXqn0R
On stepping up to take the decisive spot-kick
“I was thinking to just be confident and back myself to score the penalty. When it’s like that, I give myself a good chance of actually scoring the penalty.
“I just thought to pick that corner and stick with it. Pick it early and go with it. If you back yourself, you’ve got a really good chance of scoring the penalty.”
On bouncing back from Friday night
“The other day you saw three or four missed from us, so to come back today and score all of them out of the five was a really, really good achievement for us.
“It’s all about reactions. Everybody was saying how we were going to react, and fair play to the lads because we showed tonight that we can react as a group and we’re a good bunch of lads.
“Showing our mental strength is the main thing. How you come back from those setbacks and chances missed – we missed two golden chances at the end of the game – but we still had that willpower to battle through and win the game on penalties.”
— Wolves Academy (@WolvesAcademy) May 17, 2022
On preparing for the final
“We’ve got to be compact, narrow, and defend how we defended today. We’ve got enough in our attack to create chances and cause people problems.
“We’ve just got to prepare now, rest, recover and we’ll see what Monday brings.”
