Anyone who has played football at any level has been there.
You picture yourself scoring a vital goal, accepting the adulation of your team-mates, your name up in lights. And more often than not, you end up with egg on your face.
Motherwell goalkeeper Connor Ripley was doomed to such a fate on Saturday, when he turned up in the Dundee United box in injury time for a corner, only to be picking the ball out of his own net a matter of seconds later.
“It was the last kick of the game and I felt I had nothing to lose,” Ripley said.
“We could have grabbed a point if the ball had fallen.
“I looked at the gaffer and he gave me the nod, he said, ‘go on then’.
“So I ran up but it didn’t work out.
“To be honest, I don’t know how I managed to get back down the park.
“I somehow managed to find an extra yard and get back but all credit to the lad because he finished really well.
“As I was going up for the corner I had it in my head, ‘Ripley scores the equaliser.’
“But in the end it was more, ‘Ripley looks like a numpty.’”
The young keeper, on-loan at Fir Park from Middlesbrough until January at least, looked anything but a numpty for the majority of the match, pulling off two excellent saves from Charlie Telfer and commanding his area with authority.
In the end, he was probably right to harbour a sense of injustice at the final outcome.
“Every loss is hard to take but at the end of the day someone has to win and someone has to lose,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we were the ones to lose at the weekend.
“I’m paid to make saves like that, at the end of the day it’s my job.
“But the saves I made are irrelevant because we lost the game, we lost the points.
“But I don’t think we deserved to lose the game like that.
“As it’s been said, it was a smash and grab job.”
Ripley comes from impressive footballing stock, being the son of former England winger Stuart Ripley, one of the standout members of Blackburn’s Premiership-winning squad of the mid-nineties.
Based upon his brief but impressive showings for Motherwell so far, it might not be fanciful to suggest that he could have a similar future in the game.
“It was a bit of a whirlwind for me because I joined the club last week and I was straight in the team for the game against Inverness,” he said.
“Last week was my first full week training with the lads and getting to know them.
“To be fair, I knew a couple of the lads and that was a massive help.
“It calms you down but all the lads have been brilliant, they have really helped me.
“I want to play games and get minutes under my belt.
“That’s why you go on loan.
“You only get experience by playing games. I am aware John Ruddy was here on loan and look how things have happened for him since then.
“I would love to be involved in the England set up one day but it’s one step at a time for now.
“I have joined Motherwell on loan until January and we’ll see what happens.
“If I’m playing and enjoying my football then I would like to stay for the season, of course.
“We haven’t even talked about that.
“I’m just looking forward to doing well for Motherwell.”
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