You get a pat on the back but you are only 6 inches away from a kick up a***
HAVING spent the previous 45 minutes biting their fingernails to the bone, Birmingham City’s fans exploded in wild celebration at the end of Blues’ remarkable 4-3 victory over QPR.
Leading 4-0 with a minute to go before half-time, Garry Monk’s men invited Rangers back into the match and were almost powerless to prevent them from stealing a draw throughout a terrifying second period.
Indeed, with their advantage down to a single goal it seemed that for the second away game running Blues had thrown away two points at the death, as Nahki Wells lined up a stoppagetime penalty.
Enter Lee Camp, Birmingham City’s Master of the Unexpected.
The 34-year-old plunged to his right to turn aside Wells’ spot-kick and complete what had been the club’s finest goalkeeping display of the season.
He joined the rest of the squad at the School End and was heralded with every one of the 1,800 Blues supporters hammering out ‘Lee Camp in the middle of our goal, Lee Camp...’ to the tune of Madness’ Our House.
No band name more neatly summed up what had happened in the previous 95 minutes, but while the rest of us got carried away, Camp’s feet remained firmly on the ground.
Asked about that song he said: “It’s nice, you get a pat on the back but you are only six inches away from a kick up the a***, aren’t you?
“Don’t get too high when things go for you and don’t get too low when things don’t go quite right – that’s the life of a goalkeeper.
“You just try to do your best for the team and, thankfully, it resulted in a win.”
Camp could been forgiven fearing such afternoons belonged in his past a s knee injuries, a lack of opportunities and Sunderland’s palsied defence threatened to undermine what had been a very solid professional career.
“That was out of my control, all I could do was try and play well and be consistent on the pitch and the rest takes care of itself,” he said.
“That’s the world we live in, people have opin- have for ions and I have got many of my own. All I can control is the way I behave every day in training and how I try to play on a Saturday and the rest takes care of itself.
“I don’t like conceding goals, naturally – but unfortunately that’s going to happen as a goalkeeper.
“I have conceded many goals before and I am probably going to concede many more down the road but it’s about winning.
“It’s the business end of the season and if we win every game 4-3 between now and the end of the season there might be a few heart attacks along the way but it will be a positive thing.
“We will try not to but it’s about winning, sometimes you just have to win.”
While that outc o me seemed certain for the first 44 minutes, it became less and less likely as Matt Smith had his customary merry way with the Blues’ defence.
The Birmingham-born striker, son of ex-Blues player Iain, scored twice and will be wondering even now how he didn’t trick.
Camp is probably the main reason. “I was wondering where those five minutes (of stoppage time) came from and when they had those couple of corners at the end it felt like forever,’’ he said. “Up 4-1 at half-time, it’s a crazy game, you saw what happened with Villa and Sheffield United, their goal just before half-time probably just changed the momentum a little bit and they were a wounded animal.
“They had nothing to lose, they came out and they’ve got a 6ft 6ins striker, they throw everything into the box and the law of averages say that eventually something is going to drop.
“The ball was coming in from every angle but I thought we defended really well, stayed strong and saw out the game – what a relief.
“We do our prep on a Friday morning, we have information packs, iPads, laptops and all that sort of stuff.
“I had a little run through the penalty takers on Friday morning and I know he has taken some for Huddersfield, I think it was in the play-offs the last one he took. I just waited to see, I didn’t make my mind up until he started his run-up and I just had an instinct that he was going to whip it across his body from his run-up. Thankfully I guessed right.”
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