Nick’s penalty-kick reprieve

VILLAIN-turned hero Nick Colgan summed up his roller-coaster Coca-Cola League One play-off final in just four words.

“Who’d be a keeper?” joked the Barnsley number one after his side’s penalty shoot-out win over Swansea.

The Dubliner stole the glory in Saturday’s Millennium Stadium showpiece, which the Tykes won 4-3 on spot-kicks after the game finished 2-2 following extra-time.

With Ade Akinfenwa having already blazed his penalty over, Colgan saved from Alan Tate to send Barnsley into next season’s Championship, thus ending their four-year exile from the second tier of English football.

But the 32-year-old could so easily have been remembered instead for one of the worst goalkeeping blunders since the play-offs began.

With a pulsating game locked at 1-1, Colgan fumbled a harmless long-range shot from Andy Robinson, sending the ball squirming into his own net.

“It sums up goalkeeping: one minute you’re the villain, the next you’re the hero,” said a delighted, but philosophical Colgan.