Humble Antonin Kinsky insisted he’ll stay grounded after a dream debut in our colours.
The 21-year-old goalkeeper shone with some smart footwork and sharp saves in our 1-0 win over Liverpool at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday night, just days after completing his move from Slavia Prague.
Among his highlights were two stunning stops to deny Darwin Nunez in the latter stages of the game, while he also produced some pinpoint, assured passing over the course of the 90 minutes as we gave ourselves the upper hand in our two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final against the Reds.
Legendary forward Clive Allen even described his performance as “one of the best debuts I’ve seen at this football club” on The Review Show on SPURSPLAY.
Nevertheless, in the face of high praise from all quarters, ‘Toni’ refused to get carried away as he reflected on our first-leg triumph.
“I would say a win against Liverpool in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup, 1-0, clean sheet... that’s a good start,” he said. “I said before, I’m a big dreamer, but with my feet on the ground. I have the plans, I have the goals, but to be honest, I have four days behind me, 90 minutes and it’s still feet on the ground. I won’t say, ‘I want to win this, I want to win that’. Tomorrow morning I’ll go back to training again, I’ll work hard and prepare for the next game.”
Toni revealed the confidence he displayed on the ball was thanks in part to the introduction given to him by goalkeeping coach Rob Burch, while he also paid tribute to his team-mates for helping him to settle in so quickly.
“To be honest, I like to play a lot – I would say I play with confidence, but I don’t like to risk, because I still feel there is a difference between playing smart and playing with confidence and playing with risk,” he continued.
“I arrived three days ago, I had two training sessions with the team, one with the goalkeeper coach, so I was slowly getting to know the pace. The first half was so-so, but in the second half I felt confident, and this is the way I want to play. I have to say the boys helped me a lot in the game because they wanted to play, they were confident and I have to mention the coaches, the staff, especially the goalkeeper coach who spoke to me a lot and gave me the vision on what the games look like, so that helped me a lot to have this information and I could work with it.”
And what about those two saves from Nunez, the first a solid block at his near post and the second an incredible save down to his right in the blink of an eye?
“I would say that’s my job. My job is not just to play good with the feet, but to help the team in the moments when it’s needed. Today, two saves, I had the luck to save them, it wasn’t like top bins or something, which happens a lot in the Premier League – I know as I watch it a lot. These two saves I could make, I was focused, tried to have a good position and was able to react. I’m happy for the saves, happy for the result, happy for the whole club. Since I’ve arrived, everyone has helped me so much that I felt confident from the beginning.”
There was a lovely moment after the full-time whistle as Toni shared a long, emotional embrace with a family member at the front of the stands.
“That was my sister,” he explained. “She has supported me all the way through, for 21 years, and I’m so grateful that I have her. There have been many ups and downs, and I always had the goal to get to such a club and play these games. Sometimes it wasn’t looking good and there were some problems that everyone has, but she was the one always by my side, supporting me, and I hope she enjoyed this.”
Watch | Antonin Kinsky discusses his debut on The Review Show