COVENTRY City’s Checkatrade Trophy final goalkeeping hero Lee Burge has talked today about the ‘crazy experience’ of winning at Wembley in front of 43,000 Sky Blues fans as being ‘what dreams are made of.’
The Sky Blues academy graduate who made several vital quality saves as Oxford United pressed for a second-half equaliser, notably a point-blank save in the final minutes, said: “I still haven’t got over it. I’m still enjoying it.
“It’s a crazy experience. I haven’t got words to describe it. It’s what dreams are made of.
“Everything was built up. The lads played excellent. They defended really well. The whole experience was brilliant.”
Asked about his history-making save from the close-range header at the death when 43,000 Coventry fans’ hearts were in mouths for a seemingly interminable period until Gael Bigirimana also blocked the ball on the line and it rebounded safely into Burge’s hands, the goalkeeper said: “They had a corner. The ball went back out and came back in again and I saw Josh Ruffels get a head to it.
“I knew I had to keep it out and Gael did well to prevent it going in.”
His was typically understated when asked about the post-match celebrations: “We got back home, and met up and had a few drinks. It was a quiet night. We all enjoyed it.”
He said tomorrow night’s game would be another one with a “lot of atmosphere” with Sheffield United pushing for promotion. “We have to keep going. We’ve shown we’re a good team and hopefully we’ll give them an upset.
“We knew we had another game straight after (Wembley). We knew we had to get back into training and prepare and be professional about it.”
He said the team would have to be “aggressive” and “keep its shape” at Bramall Lane against the likes of ex-Sky Blue John Fleck, James Hanson and Billy Sharp, the three he singled out for a mention.
Burge added: “We’ve won the last three games. We should go out there and believe we can beat them.”
Asked about a pre-Wembley team talk by Bigirimana about giving something back to the club after nine of the team involved had come from the club’s youth academy, Burge said: “I was a year older than Gael. We played throughout our academy days together.
“It was a good idea for us all to get together and express our views about how we wanted to be positive and give the club back something.”
