Photo: The signing of Michael Soszynski (above) has relegated Craig Minty to number two again at Eagles now that Nathan Pitchford (top) and Andrew Savage (middle) are both injured.
Craig Minty was thrown in at the deep end on against Kingborough Lions United two weeks ago, but showed he has what it takes.
The 17-year-old is third-choice goalkeeper at New Town Eagles, but with first-choice Nathan Pitchford injured and out of action for the next few months, Minty was understudy to Andrew Savage for the Premier League match against Kingborough Lions United.
Three minutes before half-time, Savage snapped an Achilles tendon and was taken to hospital, where he underwent surgery on Sunday.
He had suffered a similar injury on the other leg two seasons ago.
Minty came on with Eagles 2-1 down, and he went on to concede four more goals as the Lions ran out 6-3 winners.
But, the young custodian pulled off two brilliant saves near the end to deny Greg Freeman, who had already netted a hat-trick at that stage.
“I felt pretty nervous when I came on,” said Minty, who stands at 188cm and whose father, Malcolm, was also a keeper.
“It was a good game and we didn’t lose out heads, but we did make silly mistakes in the back-line.”
Minty has been playing in the under-19s and reserves, but just when it looked as if he would be in the seniors for some time to come, Eagles signed goalkeeper Michael Soszynski, who kept a clean sheet in Sunday's 0-0 draw with Hobart Olympic.
Minty played school soccer with Dominic College until grade seven, when he joined Eagles, and he has now been with the club for three years.
Now that Eagles have signed Michael Soszynski, Minty has had to go back to being the number two keeper at the club.
2 comments:
what did pitchy actuallly do 2 his knee??????????
He hyper-extended it during a pre-season friendly and did quite a bit of damage. It'll be some time before he's back.
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