Ryan One thought he had missed the goal that took Hamilton Accies into the SPFL Trust Trophy final, and only realised when he saw the net bulge.
The 16-year-old climbed off the bench to net a priceless winner for Accies, latching onto Lewis Smith’s through-ball before ratting the ball into the bottom left corner of the net to give his side a 2-1 extra-time win over Queen of the South.
League One side Queens battled hard to take the tie to extra-time, but One admits Accies should have had it out of sight before Ross Irving’s deflected leveller took the game to an added 30 minutes.
He said: “There was a player catching up to me there and I could see the keeper coming out, so I thought I had to get it round him as quickly as I can.
“I thought I missed it at first, because I thought I had gone too wide. I was running one way and I couldn’t see the angle right, but it ended up going in.
“I knew it was in when I saw the net ripple, and it was the best feeling I’ve had in football so far.”
One, who scored his second goal of the season in the win, said: “It feels good to get a goal. I’ve not played for the past couple of games, so it was good to make an appearance again and to win the game for us is a good feeling.
“I’ve just been looking for game time and stuff, because there are new players coming in, so I need to try and make my way back into the team.
“That’s just what I have to do, that’s how football works.
“It’s a good feeling though.
“I think we had a lot of chances to see out the game earlier than we did, and we made it a bit harder for ourselves than it had to be.”
One hopes he has done enough to earn a place in the squad against Hearts in the Scottish Cup fifth round on Friday night and said: “We’ll see what happens.
“It’s not my decision, but hopefully.”
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