Gomes trusts instincts for penalty save

Heurelho Gomes has claimed his penalty save owed little to research and was down to instinct alone.

Gomes saved from Spurs old-boy, Darren Bent with the scores at 1-0, one of many that earned him the man of the match award for his performance.

And whilst he had studied Bent’s penalty form, Gomes said that he scrapped all he had learned and gone on his own intuition.

He told the club’s official website, “The performance analysts at the club had shown me during the week the last eight penalties Darren had taken.

“He normally goes to the keeper’s right, but on this occasion he went left so he changed his mind and I waited for him to make his decision and got it right.

“But there’s no hard feelings, he’s a great lad and when I came to Spurs he helped me settle in. After the game I just told him to keep his head up because he’s a great striker.

“The penalty save was a great moment for us and me personally. I was pleased with the stop and it was so important for everyone because we needed this win for the sake of our league position.

“Sunderland played very well in the second half. They have a very good side and we tried our best to keep them out of our box. They put us under a lot of pressure, but we stuck together.

“It’s a great win for us because we lost the last two league games, but now we’re back to winning ways and back in the top four.”

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