Joe Day hopes to summon up the spirit of goalkeeping great Gordon Banks to help him keep a clean sheet against mighty Manchester City on Saturday.
The Newport County keeper hit the headlines in the last round for missing the birth of his twin girls to help the Exiles overcome Middlesbrough.
Now he wants to stay in the limelight by stopping Sergio Aguero from hitting another hat-trick in the FA Cup fifth round tie at Rodney Parade.
The Argentinean marksman has scored nine goals in his last six games and last weekend equalled Alan Shearer’s record of 11 Premier League hat-tricks with three goals in the 6-0 thumping of Chelsea.
Man City have scored five or more goals nine times this season and they hit Burton with nine in the League Cup. With 120 goals in 32 games in all competitions this season they are averaging 3.75 goals per game.
“It was very sad to hear of the passing of Gordon Banks this week. He was a World Cup winner and an absolute goalkeeping legend,” said Day.
“He brought a lot to the game, none more so than the save from Pele in the 1970 World Cup. A few of those wouldn’t go amiss at the weekend.
“I’m in the firing line at the weekend but, as a goalkeeper, it is something you enjoy. It is a chance to test myself against the best in the world.
“Aguero has got to be one of the best around and, if he does play, it is going to be a great moment for me to play against him.
“As professionals, we want to test ourselves against the very best and it would be great to see the likes of Aguero and De Bruyne grace Rodney Parade would be great.”
Day admits his life has been “pretty crazy” since his wife, Lizzie, gave birth to their twin daughters, Sophia and Emelia, on the night of the 2-0 win over Boro.
Tuesday night’s game against MK Dons injected a degree of normality, but the clash with the Premier League champions is going to keep him very busy at the weekend.
“It has been pretty crazy, and Lizzie and I have had our hands full, but it’s something we are really enjoying. It has been very special,” he added.
“I am getting just about enough sleep. We handle it together so we make sure we are both getting enough rest.
“It was good to be carrying on as normal with some football on Tuesday night, although it was just a shame about the result.”
It was an 88th minute goal that robbed Day of a fourth successive clean-sheet and gave the visitors a 1-0 victory. Now his thoughts are firmly focused on how to contain a City side that has scored 120 goals in 32 games so far this season and have netted 12 goals in their two previous FA Cup games.
“I tend not to remember things like the most goals I’ve let in, but six against Yeovil earlier this season was pretty bad. Let’s hope we can keep it less than that,” admitted Day, who will walk out with his son, 20 month ago Harrison, as mascot.
In that game, Yeovil had 11 shots, eight of which were on target, and scored six goals with only 52 per cent possession.
