Peter Grogan scores first professional goal

There were a couple of firsts for former Crettyard star Peter Grogan recently, who is playing with Austin FC II over in the US. Not only did he make his first professional start as he started Austin FC II’s game against Colorado Rapids II as the MLS season began, but he also scored his first professional goal. “On a personal note to score my first professional goal was amazing.” 

Speaking to The Nationalist during the week, Peter explained that he pretty much knew he was going to start the game from early in the week, being the only fit striker in the squad. “It wasn’t too much of a shock. It sounds a bit cocky when I say that, but I was actually the only striker in the squad who was fit to play so kinda for the week I knew I would be starting. I felt ready, I’d played a few full games in the run up to it in pre-season so from a fitness point of view, I felt ready. I also knew that I would be playing so I was mentally ready too. It was only confirmed in the pre match meeting, but in all the training sessions and walkthroughs and everything I was the striker so I knew that week. Absolutely it was really really nice, little bit nervous walking out but as soon as the whistle went, I was popping the ball around really well, my thinking before every game is to make my first action a good one and the first time I got the ball I was able to trap it and set it off for my teammates so it’s about trying to do the simple stuff well at the start and that’s what I did well.” 

Peter said he felt like he was scoring freely in pre-season and felt confident in his ability, so much so that he told his family he would score in his first game. “I felt really good and confident going into it. Training and pre-season was really good, I was scoring in most of the games so when I was talking to mam and dad before it I felt like I was going to score. I was thinking to myself why would it be any different to pre-season? It’s just another game, I’ve been scoring in pre-season so why can’t I score now?” 

He added he has a good relationship with the winger who got the assist and said all he had to do was get into the right position to score. “Just trying to get anything on it. When I was coming up, I saw Jimmy, our winger who assisted me get the ball and we have a really great connection, so I knew all I had to do was beat my man in the box and just get there first. I had to speed up a little bit because he was front of me but if I was able to win the front of him and get my body across him, I knew Jimmy would find me. When you’re that close in, all I was thinking was to get some kind of contact on it and it was probably going to be on target because I was that close to the goal, so I just had to throw myself at it.”