“We lose together” – Xabi Alonso on how he will help youngster recover after horror mistake

Mike Penders scored an own goal against Tottenham yesterday, a horrible moment for a young player making his first league start.

As a 21 year old making your debut in goal, the worst possible start is an own goal (and a crucial one) against your team’s biggest rivals.

Sadly for Mike Penders, that’s just what happened to him against Tottenham yesterday. After the game, Xabi Alonso was asked about how he would cheer the youngster up following such a horrible moment.

Alonso on keeping his keeper’s spirits high

“We win, we lose together and it is part of the job to deal with and to overcome from mistakes, myself as well and everyone, so we support Mike and we support the rest of the team,” Alonso said

“He will learn from that and he will want to prove that he can do better and we have to show that we can do better.”

It was a horrible moment, but you don’t get to this level as a goalkeeper without some serious self confidence, and we’re sure the rest of the team and coaching staff will be helping get the youngster back on track.

He just needs to make a couple of good saves in our next game and he’ll soon put this behind him.

In other news…

The decision to sit deep ended up backfiring on Chelsea, who the battle for possession and then lost the game.

Joe Cole talked about the mistake Mike Penders made for Tottenham’s goal and said it was a technical mistake on the punch.