Ed McGinty: 'It's part of my job, I'm here to make saves'

DOING HIS JOB: There were still over 20 minutes to play in the Conference League play-off second leg in Tallaght on Thursday night when Ed McGinty pawed Vinicius Lopes’ superb half-volley up and over his crossbar to keep Santa Clara of Portugal at arm’s length.   Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

It’s pushing it slightly to say that it was a €3.7m save. But not by much.

There were still over 20 minutes to play in the Conference League play-off second leg in Tallaght on Thursday night when Ed McGinty pawed Vinicius Lopes’ superb half-volley up and over his crossbar to keep Santa Clara of Portugal at arm’s length.

Gabriel Silva, the recently confirmed fastest man in football, would make Irish hearts race with three more efforts before the final whistle, one of them diverted brilliantly by the Rovers keeper when coming through a thicket of players.

And let’s not forget that Rovers were in no way overrun in this one. Stephen Bradley’s side were comfortable in the first-half as they defended a 2-1 first-leg lead and had a litany of chances at the other end in a dominant opening 20 minutes after the break.

They earned this. All of them. But it’s still hard not to come back to McGinty’s wonder stop.

“Ah, yeah, look it’s part of my job, I’m here to make saves,” said the 26-year old in a manner that Roy Keane would love to hear. “We train hard for it with Jose, Lee, Todd and Alex. It’s a big team performance over the two legs from the lads.

“To go over there and get the winning result and then to come back here, I thought we did well tonight. I thought we had chances where we could have scored, they had a couple of chances. We done well.” 

Rovers boss Stephen Bradley was less inclined to play McGinty’s spectacular intervention down when assessing an evening that will take the Hoops into the group stage of European football for the third time in four seasons.

“Yeah, save the season. I don't think you'll see better than that. I watched it back from the GoPRO behind the goal. It looks like it's passed him at one stage. To get it over the bar from there is an incredible save.

“He was disappointed with the goal [away to Santa Clara] last week. He said he should have got that one over the bar. It was a similar type of save tonight. But I brought Ed in because I felt we needed an Alan Mannus-type presence and a personality and someone who makes big saves at big moments.

“And Ed's that. He makes big saves at big moments. He's got real personality, real character. And he made an incredible save tonight. But he's been brilliant all year. He's got better and better. And he was brilliant.” 

It was put to McGinty that, when the quality of the save and the prize on the line were put together, maybe this was the best save in a career that has taken in Sligo Rovers and Oxford United before his domicile in Tallaght.

“No! We played Dundalk away with Sligo Rovers, I think it was 2020, 2021. It was the last game of the season, and we won and got Europe. In that game I had my best save. It was similar, a cross-header [from Brian Gartland], left-hand reaction.” 

All part of the job.