'Hoped I'd be Tamworth hero' - Lambs keeper Singh
Tamworth goalkeeper Jasbir Singh admits he always sensed he might end up as the Lambs' FA Cup penalty shootout hero.
After Tamworth held League One's bottom club Burton Albion to Sunday's 1-1 draw at the Pirelli Stadium, Singh saved from Danilo Orsi and Ben Whitfield when it went to penalties before Haydn Hollis fired home the Lambs' winning spot-kick.
"It's all down to instinct," Singh told BBC Radio WM. "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 possibly helped Tamworth, to Burton's annoyance, that the penalties were taken in front of the away end, where the visiting fans were already serenading the keeper with 'Jas Singh, in the middle of our goal'.
"You have adrenaline flowing through you," admitted Singh. "And you're just hoping you can be the hero."
After a goalless 90 minutes in the second-round tie, Mason Bennett had put Burton ahead two minutes into extra time but Ronan Maher levelled just two minutes later.
"I was quite chilled," Tamworth boss Andy Peaks told BBC Radio WM. "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.
"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 management found different ways to celebrate on Sunday night.
"I feel on top of the world," said Birmingham-born Singh, 34, who began his career with Shrewsbury Town. "But I am a bit croaky after the team night out."
Peaks added: "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.
"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."
Now, having knocked out two League One clubs, after beating Huddersfield Town in the first round, it is all about who they get next - in Monday evening's third-round draw.
"These are the sort of moments you live for in football and the boys have earned the right for a big draw," said Peaks.
"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 last reached the FA Cup third round in 2012, beating fellow non-league sides Hinckley and Gateshead en route, but then lost 2-0 to that season's eventual beaten semi-finalists Everton at Goodison Park, thanks to a Johnny Heitinga goal and a Leighton Baines penalty.
Tamworth manager Andy Peaks and goalkeeper Jas Singh were talking to BBC Radio WM's Kath Stanczyszyn
