When Tommy Conway stepped up to the penalty spot in the 92nd minute of Friday’s home game with Plymouth, it is no exaggeration to suggest he had the fate of his side’s season in his hands.
Score, and Boro would be heading to Sheffield Wednesday on Monday within three points of the top six and with their hopes of forcing their way into the play-offs still very much alive. Miss, and the gap to the top six would be five points with three games remaining, not an insurmountable gap maybe, but one that would make a play-off place an extremely unlikely prospect.
To increase the pressure further, Conway was placing the ball on the spot knowing that he had missed his last penalty in October’s 3-3 draw at Carrow Road. Could he handle the heat? The answer arrived when the ball hit the back of the net.
“That kind of pressure is what I thrive off,” said Conway, who was dispatching his 13th goal of the season as he secured Boro’s 2-1 win. “In the way the game played out, 1-1 at this stage of the season as well, we knew we had to come off the pitch with the three points.
“It’s just the kind of moment where I like to step up and do what I do best, and that’s put the ball in the back of the net. I’m glad I could do that for the fans, for the boys and for the gaffer, and we could go home happy with the three points.
“I just did my job. I checked the results and the table as soon as I got back in. It’s a good thing that I did put it in the back of the net having seen Bristol City and Coventry both won.
“Obviously, I didn’t know that at the time I took it, but I just had to do my job. We’ve all done our job as our result, and that’s ultimately all we can do. We have to look after ourselves and whatever happens, happens. We just have to give ourselves the best chance to achieve what we want to achieve.”
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The next challenge is to win at Hillsborough tomorrow in another game that has the potential to play a decisive role in the promotion fight.
Both the sides directly above Boro in the table are also playing at 3pm tomorrow, with sixth-placed Bristol City heading to Kenilworth Road to take on a Luton side that are scrapping for their lives in the bottom three and seventh-placed Coventry trekking to Home Park to take on Plymouth, who caused Boro so many problems on Monday.
The potential for a major momentum shift is massive, but given that they are playing catch-up, the equation for Boro is simple. With just three more games to go, the game against mid-table Sheffield Wednesday is surely must-win.
“It’s not over yet,” said Conway. “We’ve still got a lot to play for and we’ve got to go again on Monday. You look at the Championship, and with all the fixtures left to play, every team can still play for something.
“Whether it’s Plymouth, like on Friday, or whoever. I said to the boys (ahead of Monday’s game), ‘Forget about where Plymouth are in the league. They might be bottom and so it would be easy to think we should just win it. It’s not going to be like that. We’ve got to earn it’.
“It won’t be any different when we go to Sheffield Wednesday on Monday. They’re a good team, and we’re going to have to go there and earn it again. Irrespective of where teams are in the league, we’ve got to earn it. We go again Monday.”
Boro can at least take comfort in Conway’s goalscoring form since joining from Bristol City, with the 22-year-old the fifth highest scorer in the Championship, even though he had to spend part of the first half of the season battling against injury and deputising for Emmanuel Latte Lath.
“I think I’ve settled really quickly at the club and, from the gaffer all the way down, I think everyone seems to have taken to me well,” he said. “I’ve managed to do my talking on the pitch and do what I do best by scoring goals.
“I love playing for this club, I love going into training every day and having a laugh and a joke with the boys, but then, when it’s time to work, I do apply myself properly and I train well. I’d like to think I’d have even more goals if not for the injuries.
“It was a big thing for me coming to this club – I knew I was going to benefit from the playing style and it would allow me to score more goals because I’d get more chances. Personally, I don’t think it could have gone much better – I’m just hoping we can achieve what we want to achieve now this season.”
