Callum Burton's Wembley Preview
On Sunday, Callum Burton watched England beat Ukraine 2-0 at Wembley Stadium, and cast his mind forward by a week.
This Sunday, Callum and his team-mates will take to the very same turf to play in the Papa Johns Trophy Final against Bolton Wanderers, as Argyle will play at Wembley for only the third time in the club’s history.
For Callum, it will be a first time playing at the national stadium, and he is aware that is something that for a footballer comes along rarely, if at all. He is, though, channelling an experience as substitute goalkeeper for Argyle at Chelsea last season, in another mass movement of the Green Army to Wembley.
“I’ve never played in a cup final; a lot of the lads haven’t,” he told Argyle TV.
“Everyone came in after a weekend off with an extra spring in their step. It’s a big week, but an enjoyable week. Weeks like this don’t come along very often in your career, so you have to enjoy it, as well as preparing right.
“I got excited watching England play at Wembley. When you think that it is seven days before we’re there, that gets you excited, thinking that instead of England fans, it’s going to be Argyle fans.
“I’ve never been there as a player before, but the lads who have said it is a really special day. Walking out at Chelsea last year for the warm-up was special, when we already had about 2,000 fans in. I know it is going to be the same at Wembley. It will be special looking up and seeing your family in the stand, because it could be a once-in-a-career opportunity.”
Argyle have played seven games in the run up to Sunday’s final, winning four in 90 minutes, and drawing the other three before winning penalty shoot-outs.
The games have included times where the club’s younger contingent have been called upon, as well strong performances against teams in the same division and, perhaps most memorably, coming from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 with Wimbledon, then prevailing from the spot.
Callum has kept goal in all of them, making crucial saves in each shoot-out, but humbly chose instead to put the focus on his colleagues attempting to put the ball into the net, rather than keep it out.
“A benefit of the cup layout is the penalties at the end,” he said. “Outside of this competition, it is very rare that you will do a penalty shoot-out. Now we’ve had three this year, and two last year as well, we’ve got people with five or six shoot-outs behind them. Taking one in a shoot-out when everyone is focused on you is a completely different feeling.
“I’ve been confident going into every shoot-out that we have five or six top drawer penalty takers who back themselves., Every time so far we’ve been able to win, so I’ve been proven right.
“At the start of the season, we said we wanted to go and get to the final. When injuries hit, it became more of a makeshift team, with a lot of young lads coming in, sometimes with six or seven youth-teamers in. It shows how good our academy is, that they came in and showed what they were about. They scored goals that changed games for us.
“If you had said, at 3-0 down to Wimbledon at half-time, that we’d be getting to Wembley, a lot of us would have laughed at you. But that is what cups are about. We went to pens, and we won.
“It’s been a bit of whirlwind. We haven’t lost a single game in this competition – group stages or knockouts. It’s been a solid campaign. We’ve won when we’ve needed to, we’ve gone away to hard teams like Bristol Rovers – a tough game, in bad conditions – and found a way to win. We need to do the same on Sunday.”
If a cup final and a potential promotion was not enough, Callum welcomed son Hugo into the world earlier this month.
“It’s been a hectic few months,” he said, “but probably the most enjoyable of my life. It’s been a special few weeks and months, and it’s got the makings of becoming even more special, with the cup final and the run-in.
“A hat-trick of baby, cup and promotion would make this season the best yet.”
