An ‘emotional’ Conor Hourihane spoke to the press after scoring a stunning late equaliser against local rivals Sheffield United on Saturday.
Hourihane saw a penalty saved mid-way through the second half by United ‘keeper George Long, but was not distracted when his chance came in the fifth minute of stoppage time, to earn the Reds a point.
“It was an emotional day to say the least.” said Conor. “Missing the penalty was very disappointing. I tried to put it to the back of my mind and it was hard, but the ball just fell nicely for me and it was my one chance to redeem myself and I did. (I was) delighted for it to go in.
“Myself and the 'keeper were playing cat and mouse with each other. He had done his homework, when we got the penalty their keeper was looking at tactics, he did me - fair play. If we had lost 1-0 it would have been really hard to take for myself especially.
“It was relief when the goal went in. Pure relief. I’m delighted for the lads, to dig them out, but it could have been 1-1 earlier and maybe we could have won.
“We had a lot of chances but so did they. Adam Davies made a good few saves, all in all it was an up-and-down day but a good point against a strong team. With the players they have they should be up there.”
Hourihane wants to make sure the Reds take this momentum and move on up the league, but he also wanted to make sure the squad were focused on the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match this weekend against Wigan.
“It’s not like we’ve been getting beat badly, it’s always been one goal and not getting some luck," he continued. "Maybe this could be a big turning point. A couple of weeks ago that goal wouldn’t have gone in, we’ve got tough games in December so this is a big chance to push on.
“This football club shouldn’t be where it is, we have to fight together to get as high as we can and this needs to be a turning point.
“We’re all excited for the JPT, it’s semi-final time and we’ll take a lot of positives from today and we’ll take confidence there. It’s a one-off game and hopefully we get the result.”
