Brian Howard admits he has been living a dream since scoring the winner against Liverpool in the FA Cup.
Cup heroics yet to sink in
Barnsley captain Brian Howard admits he has been living a dream since scoring the winning goal against Liverpool in his club's FA Cup fifth round tie last week.
The midfielder's injury-time strike secured a memorable 2-1 win for the Tykes at Anfield and ensured that his name will now forever be associated with underdog upsets.
With the 25-year-old still pinching himself, he is hoping that the club will now be able to take that kind of performance into their league campaign, and further forward to the quarter-finals of the Cup against Chelsea, the club where he started his career.
Under-achieving
"There's no reason why we can't take our Cup form into the league," he told
skysports.com.
"We have some good players here and we actually think we're under-achieving. If we can win some more games away from home and continue our good form at Oakwell, then there's no reason why we can't sneak into the play-offs.
"As for Chelsea, I had a bit of time there and I still know a few of the lads. It's going to be another big game for us, but we've only lost twice at home all season so there's no reason why we can't produce another upset."
Attitude
While perhaps getting a bit ahead of himself by predicting another major upset, Howard admits that it is difficult not to get carried away by the wave of optimism currently surrounding the club in the aftermath of the Anfield victory.
"It still hasn't really sunk in, the fact that we beat Liverpool at Anfield and that I scored the winner," he said.
"It's been one phone call after another and to be honest I'm living the dream a bit at the moment.
"Our attitude (before the game) was that we were playing at Anfield in the last sixteen of the FA Cup, and to just go out there and enjoy it.
Fairytale
"We were all keen to make sure the moment didn't pass us by - for a lot of us it was a first time at Anfield and it could be the last - so it was a one-off opportunity to prove we could play at a high level and cause a big upset.
"After we equalised our keeper made some incredible saves; I think we were all beginning to wonder if it was going to be our day. Our keeper had come in two days before the game in an emergency loan - he only trained once and he was on a laptop the night before trying to learn everyone's names!
"In the last 10 or 15 minutes we had three or four chances and before the goal, we should have had a definite penalty. When the goal went in it was fairytale stuff. It's probably not the best goal I've scored, but it's certainly the one I've enjoyed the most. I had my family up so we had a few beers in the house and watched Match of the Day about 20 times over!"
