'He's come and picked me up' - McAteer reveals pep talk which helped him score winner - European Football

Ipswich Town match-winner Kasey McAteer said he was ‘over the moon’ to open his goalscoring account with the Blues in such an important fashion today.

McAteer latched on to a delicious pass from George Hirst to bury the ball and give Town a 2-1 comeback win over Birmingham City this afternoon.

And McAteer could not have been happier.

“I think you can tell by my celebration how much it meant to me,” he enthused. “I’ve come close before, but it’s never really went my way.

“So, to get one today and obviously to be the winner, I’m over the moon with it.”

He continued: “I had a similar one about literally like 10 minutes before that I should have stuck away, so I was a bit annoyed not to score that.

“But when the move was building, I got myself into a good position and Hirsty slid me through lovely and I didn’t have too much to think about.

“I’ve just slid underneath the keeper. So I’m really over the moon with it.”

Kasey McAteer said he was ‘over the moon’ to score (Image: Ross Halls)

Birmingham took the lead just seconds after McAteer missed that first opportunity – and he admits he took that hard.

“I was really annoyed with myself because I’m thinking if I score that chance, that doesn’t happen,” he revealed.

“So, I take responsibility for obviously not putting away, but it just shows the character from the boys and we come back straight into the game and we end the first half on top.

“I think the first half, the whistle goes when we don’t really want it to go because we were really on top.

“But it’s football and obviously the second half, it was a different kind of game.

“They came out and showed their quality and we had to hold on. Sometimes in these games, you need to show what you’re about and that’s what we did today.”

McAteer said George Hirst, right, got his head back in the game (Image: Steve Waller)

And McAteer revealed it was a pep talk from Hirst that got his head back into the game after that initial miss and Birmingham goal.

“I put my head down and Hirsty’s come and picked me up,” he explained. “And he said ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s about going on to the next one.’

“And that’s what we’re great at in this team, you know. We don’t think about things that go against us. It’s about the next one and the next one and the next one.

“If you make a mistake, it doesn’t matter. You can put it right by doing something good in the next action.

“And that’s exactly what we did as a team. So, it’s good to have people like that picking you up when your head drops a little bit.

“That’s football, you’re going to have ups and you’re going to have downs. But it’s good for us today in that it’s turned into a goal for myself in a pretty similar position.”

The result was Town’s first comeback win since Easter Monday two years ago, when Jeremy Sarmiento provided an iconic moment against Southampton at Portman Road.

McAteer said it’s a key moment for the team.

Kasey McAteer was on post-match fist-pump duty (Image: Steve Waller)

“We’re going to need things like this because football doesn’t always go to plan,” he stressed.

“They have their only real chance in the first half and they score. And it’s looking like an uphill battle to us, but it’s credit to the boys today. We stuck at it.

“Like I said, the second half wasn’t easy. We showed grit and determination.

“People putting bodies on the line and that’s what you’re going to need if you want to go up in this league.

“It’s never going to be easy. Nothing’s going to be handed to you. So you’ve got to take it and grab it with both hands.”

‘He’s come and picked me up’ – McAteer reveals pep talk which helped him score winner