Brentford goalkeeper Simon Moore refused to give too much away about his penalty saving technique after earning Brentford three points by keeping out a spot kick on Saturday.
The Bees beat Carlisle United 2-1 at Griffin Park on Saturday with Paul Hayes scoring the winner after Jonathan Douglas’ first half goal had been cancelled out.
Carlisle could have taken a point but Simon saved a late Joe Garner penalty.
The spot kick was awarded by referee Andy Davies when Tony Craig won an aerial challenge with David Symington, one of a number of decisions that angered the Brentford supporters.
“I was making a save when the penalty was awarded,” said Simon, speaking to The Bees Player Show after the final whistle.
“Someone had a shot and I tipped it on to the post.
“The next thing I knew the ref was giving a penalty.
“The boys felt it was a bit soft.
“My penalty saving technique comes partly from working with Richard Lee, partly from something I’ve done with my dad and partly from watching a video of the taker before the game.
“I won’t say any more than that.”
Simon was restored to the Brentford team after missing wins over Boreham Wood in the FA Cup with Budweiser and Portsmouth in League One.
The stopper signed a new contract to keep him at Griffin Park until 2016 on Tuesday and has also recently got engaged.
“It’s been a hell of a week,” he said.
“The boys are delighted.
“We knew if we won today we would be right amongst it.
“It was always going to be a difficult game.
“Second half, our performance was pretty good, not so in the first half.
“From a personal point of view, that was the poorest I have played this season, in the first half.
“We knew we had to step it up and delighted to get the three points.
“We were a completely different team in the second half to the first.
“And then we managed the game superbly.”
Simon described the victory as “huge” and said Brentford’s next run of games – their upcoming six npower League One games are all against teams in the top ten – could put them in the hunt for promotion.
“It was a huge win,” he said.
“We have a tough run of games coming up and it was vital to get three points.
“We have stepped it up against bigger teams this season.
“In the last couple of games we have ground out results.
“It gives us momentum.
“If we can pick up a few wins in the next games we can put ourselves in the race for promotion.
“Our aim is to make the top six.”
Clayton Donaldson also spoke to The Bees Player Show after the match and said Brentford couldn’t find any fluency in the first half.
Manager Uwe Rösler changed from a 4-4-2 system to 4-2-3-1 at the break and The Bees went on to win.
“We knew at half time that it wasn’t good enough,” said Clayton.
“We didn’t get going.
“Credit to Carlisle, they came here and took control of the game.
“We weren’t getting on the ball as much as we would have liked.
“We had to put pressure on Carlisle and we did in the second half.
“We couldn’t get Harry Forrester or Adam Forshaw on the ball and went long, that’s what they wanted.
“We couldn’t find our fluency.
“We change our system and it worked.”
Although Carlisle saw a penalty saved, they did not have many opportunities in the later stages.
Clayton said that was a result of hard work done in training to practice closing out games.
“We have been working on managing the game in training,” he explained.
“When you are a goal up you need to see a game out and do the right things in the right areas.
“Today, we were a goal up with 15 minutes to go and played sensible football.
“You don’t want to leave yourself open.
“The manager has been drilling it in to us; I think he will be pleased.
“That shows the maturity in the players to win the game.
“Sometimes you get more joy from grinding out a result.
“We have had opportunities to close out games earlier this season and not done so.
“Hopefully we have turned the corner now.
“We want to roll up our sleeves and make it count.”
Highlights of The Bees Player Show will be available soon.