MARKUS POOM revealed that his goal against Chelsea capped the best week of his life as he made it a double celebration.
Poom scored Shamrock Rovers only goal in Thursday night’s 5-1 Conference League defeat by the Londoners – though the Hoops are still through to the next round.
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And he celebrated by doing the ‘cradle’ celebration having become a father for the first time last Friday when his wife Rebeca gave birth to his daughter Matilde back in Estonia.
But that meant a hectic few days for the Estonia international who found out his wife was in labour when in doping control last week after the win over Borac Banja Luka.
He revealed: “I actually had doping control. And then I got my phone and I saw the missed calls so I knew it was happening.
“The due date was actually in January so it came almost a month early. But look you can’t really choose when they come.
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“So I was in doping control trying to get the flight booked. I was so anxious, I was actually the last one to get my sample done.
“I made the plane as quick as I could (on Friday morning). The baby was born as I was in the air so I had two hours of the unknown, wondering if I was I a dad or not.
“I could write a movie about it one day honestly.
“That’s my first child. We’re over the moon and I’m really looking forward to getting back to them before Christmastime.
“I’m just really happy that we got it done and it’s one of the best weeks of my life.”
That was also because, after getting the all-clear from his wife, Poom flew back from Tallinn to Dublin earlier this week to join the Hoops squad to prepare for Chelsea.
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And that meant boss Stephen Bradley stuck with the same team that beat Borac, with Poom then delivering a memorable moment with the Hoops equaliser.
Poom, 25, added: “I was with them for three days and I flew back to Dublin and I basically done one or two training sessions with the lads, a lot of sleepless nights.
“But it was well worth it, I think I am very happy to my wife that she let me go. We discussed it.
“If it was any other game I probably would have told the manager that I couldn’t play but this was kind of once in a lifetime and it paid off, to score here is unbelievable.
“As footballers we have to make a lot of sacrifices and this is a prime example of one of them, I had to sacrifice a lot to be here. So to get to score at Stamford Bridge is worth it.”
But the game overall did not go to plan for Rovers. While a result was always expected to be a tall order, Poom was disappointed that Chelsea were gifted their first two goals.
He added: “It was a bit of sloppy play on our part and the scoreline could have been a lot better.
“You knew you were up against a really tough opponent and the occasion itself. The errors at this level, they just punish you so quickly.
“We’ll analyse it, we did have a lot of positives today, we showed we can score, we showed we can create chances.
“So the more we get these types of games, we can improve, and go to the next level in our development.”
Now Rovers move on to the play-off round where they will face either Norwegians Molde or Serbs TSC Backa Topola, with the draw to take place at midday.
But whether Poom will be involved is now an unknown. On loan from Flora Tallinn for the second season running, his contract with the Hoops is now up.
He added: “I’m scheduled to have talks with the club now and we’ll talk about my future. But right now, I’ve no answer for that.”
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