Dylan Rooney had felt like a stranger in his own dressing room before kick-off but the rookie East Fife goalkeeper was the toast of Bayview by Saturday evening.
The 19-year-old was called into action for the second half of the second leg of a play-off with Clyde after first-choice Greg Paterson suffered a cut to his head.
It would prove to be an eventful debut, with Rooney making three saves during a penalty shoot-out to help preserve East Fife's status in SPFL League 1 for at least another week. They won the shoot-out 7-6 and will face Stirling Albion in the first leg of the play-off final on Wednesday night.
"I didn't expect any of that to happen," said Rooney. "As the substitute goalkeeper you are always ready to play but you do not expect to get on. It was an absolutely crazy day.
"Greg picked up a really nasty cut and he did really well to keep playing until half-time. That gave me the chance to get prepared."
He had not sat idle during the first half, with both technical areas filled with agitated players who sprang up at the slightest invitation. Rooney was on his feet in celebration as East Fife cancelled out Clyde's first-leg advantage early on when Scott McBride scored.
The visitors recovered their advantage before the break when Scott Ferguson got on the end of a long punt to poke a shot into the net. Then came Paterson's collision with Brian McQueen and a command for Rooney to make ready.
Kevin Smith's late goal helped take the tie to penalties and left Paterson centre-stage. Fraser McGhee missed from the spot to hand victory to the home side."I said to him before he took it that he was missing it," added Rooney. "I am glad he did."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article