Glover determined to bounce back from 'freakish' derby blunder
Tom Glover admits he dropped the ball in last Friday's Melbourne derby, but the Melbourne City goalkeeper is not going to let that "freakish" error impact his Hyundai A-League form.
Glover, 22, spectacularly gave Melbourne Victory a goal late in the Round 18 blockbuster at AAMI Park by dropping Ola Toivonen's free kick into his own net.
It set up a nervy finish to the game for Erick Mombaerts' men, but Glover and City held their collective nerve to register their first derby win since 2018.
"Goalkeepers, we're always going to make a mistake," Glover said.
"It's only natural, it's part of the job but at the end of the day it's how you bounce back from those mistakes and move forward.
"I had 12 minutes left in that game to deal with it and to get the three points, which we did.
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"So I just went back into the goal, got the ball, threw it away and I knew I had 12 minutes to try and keep this win.
"It hasn't affected me...obviously it's going to be in the back of my mind the next day or so, thinking about it and watching it back but moving forward, I've had a good week in training and it hasn't affected me whatsoever.
"If it's a constant mistake then you know there's a problem. If you do that [free kick] 2000 times I catch it 2000 times, it's one of those freakish mistakes that will probably never happen again.
"You have to be switched on for 95 minutes, it was big in the team talk before [the game], of being concentrated at all times. I probably took the ball too lightly."
Glover, who joined the academy of Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur in 2014, ousted Dean Bouzanis as Mombaerts' first-choice goalkeeper for the derby and it appears the Australia U-23 international is now top of the pecking order.
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The former Menai High School pupil says he wants a "dream" return to Europe one day, but for now all eyes are on securing that No. 1 jersey at City for good, having joined the club on a two-year deal at the start of the season.
Glover also has his eye on doing the same for Australia as the U-23 national team prepares for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
"But I've got to think of now and for me it's just playing as many games as possible and staying in the national team set-up with the Olympics coming up," he said.
"There's things to look forward to before I think about that."
Round 19
Wellington Phoenix v Melbourne City
Saturday, 15 February
Eden Park
Kick off: 7pm local, 5pm AEDT
