“That night felt really good, but it’s passed now. I’ve had to move on.” Owen Goodman is reflecting on last month’s dramatic shootout, when he saved two penalties to help AFC Wimbledon of League Two knock Premier League Ipswich out of the Carabao Cup.
It was the most high-profile moment of his loan spell thus far, in which the 20-year-old has been an integral part of Wimbledon’s early momentum since leaving boyhood club Crystal Palace in search of regular game time.
The Dons will place their faith in him again on Tuesday when they visit Newcastle in the third round. Originally scheduled for last week, it was moved to St James’ Park after flooding caused sinkholes to ruin the pitch at Wimbledon’s Plough Lane. The football community raised £120,000 to help restore the stadium, and the crowdfunder has now been paused.
“I think this loan will decide a lot for me,” Goodman tells Standard Sport from Wimbledon’s New Malden training ground. “I’ve had a really good start. I’ve set myself targets. Come 5pm after the last game, Grimsby away, I want to sit down and think: ‘Tick, tick, tick — I have achieved those things’.
“The big thing for me is I want promotion on my CV. I want the club to go up and I think the club deserves to go up. We need to keep this unbelievable start going. We’re in really good form and need to continue it.”
Wimbledon have four wins and a draw from six league games so far. There is confidence they can sustain a promotion push this season, with more of a level playing field in League Two after cash-rich Wrexham and Stockport were both promoted.
Goodman spent last season on loan at relegation-threatened Colchester. They stayed up in League Two, but the former Canada and England youth international is relishing life at a club pushing at the other end of the table.
“I’m in a good environment around really good people,” he says. “The big thing for me is I get to stay [living] at home. I still live with my dad and my little brother. I love them to bits, so being with them as long as possible is what I want. It keeps me happy.”
Goodman, who also had other League Two sides courting him this summer, is following in the footsteps of the likes of Aaron Ramsdale, who spent 2019 on loan at Wimbledon and two years later made his senior England debut.
“You just have to look at the goalkeepers who have been here before me,” Goodman says. “Look at where Aaron Ramsdale is now; that’s what I want to achieve. Anything can happen.”
Last season’s loan at Colchester, which Goodman says taught him to “grow up” and “be a real man”, was the young goalkeeper’s first taste of senior football.
That’s my dream: to play for Crystal Palace
After eight years living in Ontario, Canada, Goodman returned to the UK in 2015 and joined Crystal Palace’s academy as an Under-13. He says: “That is my dream: to play for Palace.
“The keepers have always been really good with me. When I was about 14, I used to have the most run-down boots in the world. Rob Quinn [an academy coach] would get Mamadou Sakho to give me some boots.
“He probably had about 50 pairs. Vicente Guaita was always good and gave me his boots, anything really. And Dean Henderson is a great guy to be around.”
A 19-year-old Goodman made his way onto the bench in March 2023 for Premier League matches against Brighton and Arsenal, with his long-time academy team-mate and friend Joe Whitworth, then also 19, deputising for the unavailable Sam Johnstone and Guaita.
“For me, being part of it all was just a mental experience,” Goodman recalls. “The day before, I was just doing a gym session for the Under-21s. All of a sudden, I just got a ring.
“Sam was injured, Vicente pulled out of training. I had to travel to Brighton away the next day. The gaffer had to make a decision, picked Joe, and I think Joe had a really good game.
“Then I got to experience Arsenal away — a surreal experience. Me and Joe came through together and have been together since we were 13. I wanted to play, but I was really happy for him. One day my opportunity will come and I’ll be able to make my Premier League debut.
“Mark Bright is in charge of all [loans] and oversees it. Everything goes through Dougie Freedman, but Mark Bright will come to loads of games.
“I’ll talk to him, and he will say he’s watched hundreds of games each season, watching the Palace first team and players out on loan. I’ve spoken to him a few times this season already; he spoke to me after the Ipswich game. He’s been to a few Wimbledon games.”
In May, Goodman met Palace manager Oliver Glasner, who wished him luck at Wimbledon, with the loan move already in the works.
Attention turns to Tuesday. Goodman grins. “[Alexander] Isak, [Anthony] Gordon… These are players I would use on FIFA career mode. Isak was a wonderkid. It’s a bit crazy to think about.
“But I back my ability and feel one day I’ll be playing against those types of players every week. I can’t think of the occasion too much. My goal is to keep a clean sheet and be a difference maker for my team. I’ve shown that a few times this season already.
“When I retire, I’d like to say that I’ve played in the Premier League, maybe even European competition. That’s what I believe in. And I’d like to say I’ve played for my country by then as well.
“I’d want to have played 600 games, played in the Premier League, in Europe, international football, the World Cup maybe — and depending on the country, the Copa America or AFCON or the Euros.
“I’m English, can play for Canada, and my mum is Nigerian-born. My mum is always on to me about [picking] Nigeria.”
But Goodman insists he is not one to lose sight of the here and now. First things first: stopping Newcastle.
