Damien Delaney

I think it's important to convey that point to the players.

If you go to a penalty shootout, please don't feel like, you know, if I miss this, I'm going to be on the back page of the Sun with a turnip on my head.

You know, you won't be.

You know, even years down the line, when you meet someone in a pub, it'll almost be an arm around the shoulder of like, geez, man, that must have been tough.

You know, people are much more empathetic these days.

Oh, no, of course I do.

Yeah, geez, I remember.

Yeah, I remember talking to the lads about it.

It's an incredible, incredible bit of experience for those guys to go through that.

You know, apparently the stadium was full up at like two in the afternoon and, you know, the traffic getting to the stadium and you hear all the stories.

But yeah, I remember it was an amazing experience.

Amazing viewing spectacle I suppose and I would imagine that was an easy atmosphere to play in but I suppose as a player you always bring it back to like no matter what's happening I used to always do this like it's only a game there's still four white lines and there's two goals at the end you know no matter where you play in the world or what was surrounding you and that was you know whenever I played in any game whether it was you know amateur or right up to big games

It's still just four white lines and two goals.

I don't think it makes any difference.

For me as a player, once the whistle went, that was it.

You're just so engrossed in what's happening, your mind.

If there's a break in play, you might have a glance around or on the warm-up, you might be looking at the stadium thinking, this is nice or I like this.

But as soon as the whistle goes, again, four white lines, two goals, one at either end and grass and that's it.

And that's the only thing you're worried about.

But if you low your mind to drift and you get involved in things like that, well, then you're not focusing on the game.