Petr Cech shares Finlay Herrick advice as Premier League legend hails ‘amazing’ West Ham debut

Among his enviable trophy haul are five FA Cup winners’ medals. The very same tournament West Ham United exited at the quarter-final stage three weeks ago, despite the best efforts of young Finlay Herrick.

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Finlay Herrick nearly made a dream start with West Ham United

Herrick was thrown in at the deep end by Nuno Espirito Santo after Alphonse Areola was forced off with an injury deep into extra time.

And there was a brief moment when Hammers icon Joe Cole thought he was witnessing an ‘FA Cup story for the ages’; Herrick roared with jubilation after kicking off the shoot-out by denying Joel Piroe from 12 yards.

“The young kid who has never played a professional game comes on. I thought he handled it really well,” Cole says opposite Cech on The Good, the Bad, and the Football podcast.

“Then I was thinking to myself, ‘Pete, this is like a story of the FA Cup for the ages.’ This is a kid who’s been at the club since he was six years old. He must have been dreaming about this moment. Then he saves the first penalty and I’m thinking, ‘It’s going to happen. West Ham are going to go through.’”

The 20-year-old academy graduate did receive some criticism from football’s fun sponges, however. Gary Lineker labelled Herrick ‘cocky’; the former Boreham Wood loanee making a concerted effort to get into the heads of his opponents from 12 yards.

Cech, a man so steady he would not spill a drop of coffee in the middle of a hurricane, does feel there is a fine line between bravery and bravado, however.

Petr Cech shares his advice for youngster Herrick

“Sometimes, that emotion is too much,” explains Cech, who famously denied Arjen Robben, Ivica Olic and Bastian Schweinsteiger from 12 yards as Chelsea beat Bayern Munich in the 2012 Champions League final.

“It might flip you the wrong way quickly if you don’t save the next (penalty), and the next one, and then suddenly your team misses

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“You start thinking, ‘Oh no, now I need to save, I need to save,’ instead of thinking, ‘OK, who is the next shooter? What is he going to do?’

“There is just too much emotion. I think if (Herrick) had let the first one in, felt that bit of disappointment thinking, ‘OK, I didn’t start well,’ and then saved the second or third, it probably would have been easier for him to handle all the crazy emotions he must have felt.

“But it’s an amazing story. It’s a shame he didn’t finish with the fairytale! But it’s a great experience for him and it will give him a lot of motivation for the future.”

What the immediate future holds for Herrick is anyone’s guess.

Alphonse Areola could potentially leave West Ham with just one year left on his eye-watering contract. It remains to be seen if Nuno feels Herrick is ready to perform back-up duties behind Mads Hermansen.

If not, there will be no shortage of interest from Football League clubs queuing up for a season-long loan deal.