INSPIRATION for footballers can come from the most unusual of sources and at the least likely of times.
For Radoslaw Cierzniak, it was the image of his five month-old daughter popping into his head on Wednesday night that propelled him on to bigger and better things.
The Pole would emerge as the hero from a compelling League Cup tie between Hibernian and Dundee United, helping the Tannadice side to a semi-final place with two saves in sudden death of the penalty shoot-out. Cierzniak admitted he was getting frustrated after failing to keep out any of Hibs' first six penalties but, galvanised by the thought of his daughter, dug deep to save the next two.
"I was upset with myself because, all the time, I seemed to be choosing the wrong way," he revealed. "How many penalties did I face before I saved one? Five, six, seven?
"So I told myself: 'Come on, I have to help my team. I have to do this for myself.' I managed to save one. For the last penalty, I thought about my daughter, Nella. She is just five months old, my first child.
"I said: 'Okay, I have to make one more save for Nella.' She is very special to me, so I wanted to do something for her. Everything I do is for her and, hopefully, she will be able to watch video of this in the future - and I'll tell her I was thinking of her when I made the last save."
Cierzniak admitted he had not studied any footage of the Hibs players taking penalties in advance of the tie, but felt confident given how often the United players work on their spot-kicks in training. "We practise penalties a lot. All the time. We have penalty competitions to see who buys the coffees. It's a very good laugh, with a serious side, because you know it can come in handy.
"In a shoot-out, or even when practising, I think it's about what you feel on the line. How you feel the guy is going to shoot it. Of course I was dancing around on the goal line, trying to put the Hibs players off. Every goalkeeper does this. You have to try something."
United will discover tomorrow evening who they will face in the semi-final at Hampden and Cierzniak hopes it will be one of the Glasgow clubs. "It's going to be very nice for the younger players to play in a semi-final at Hampden. I'll be honest, I would like to play against Celtic - or maybe Rangers. I like the big games. But I really don't care."
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