A haul of 20 league clean sheets (21 in total), a play-off final penalty save (with an extra time worldie chucked in for good measure) and cult status achieved with the fans provided some fairly stable building blocks for our end of season chat with keeper Tomas Holy.
And we felt the obvious place to start with United’s number 1 was with the saves made at Wembley that will forever have a place in the club history books.
“I couldn’t have let Jack Stretton win the game, could I?” he joked. “I would have liked the save to have been at the other end of the ground so our fans could have had a better view of it, but I still like it!
“The video of the save from behind the goal, I just love seeing Denno’s face. You can see how much he loved it as well, and that makes me love it even more.
“For the penalty - it was a good guess. I had all the preparation on my water bottle, and three out of the five penalty takers weren’t in the preparation at all, so for the one I saved I just guessed right.
“Because it was only the second pen, I thought if we were going to win it I would have to save one more, but the boys showed great character and scored all five.
“It takes some nerves to score five out of five, so in the end that one save was all we needed.”
With another camera positioned behind the goal for the shootout, it was noticeable that there was very little in the way of celebrations when he got down to stop that Rydel effort.
“It’s hard to describe how I felt after I made the save,” he admitted. “During the season, not just on that Sunday, I’ve felt like that if I’ve properly celebrated a goal we score, we then concede straight away.
“I don’t know why, but I stopped celebrating goals after the Stockport home game. I still celebrate it for myself when the boys score, but I mostly try to stay focused.
"It’s hard to describe properly, but I started to feel like whenever I celebrated I took myself out of my focused zone, then we let one in, and it was annoying me.
“It was the same at Wembley. When I saved it I did celebrate because, after all, I’d saved a penalty, but I still wanted to stay focused. I knew I still had to concentrate for the others.
“I also wanted to get the ball quickly because I didn’t want any of the Stockport players to be able to mess with whoever was coming to take our next penalty. I wanted to be able to hand it over so the Stockport players couldn’t screw with the focus our boys had.
“I did celebrate when Taylor scored his penalty, but I had no idea what to do, to be honest! I wanted to do everything and nothing all at the same time.
“I didn’t know what to do or where to run or who to celebrate with. I ran somewhere and ended up with the boys all next to me, then I just let it explode.
“I also wanted to make sure I spoke to Ben Hinchliffe and wish him all the best for next season. He had an amazing season and that was one thing I knew I wanted to do. For the rest, it was just an explosion of pure emotion.”
And those emotions led to some fantastic scenes, on the pitch and in the dressing room.
“I do remember everything that happened after the game, and I’ll remember it for the rest of my life,” he commented. “That’s something you always dream of and something you see on TV.
“Especially not being from England, you watch games at Wembley and think you’d like to play there one day. Now we’ve made it happen and the memories will last a lifetime. It’s incredible.”
As we keep reminding everybody, the Wembley experience was magnificent, but the real prize is the promotion to League One.
“I agree, it was great, but the outcome means we’re in the division above next season which is just amazing,” he told us. “With all respect, and I hope nobody takes this personally, but we’re now swapping grounds like Barrow, Harrogate and Sutton for grounds like Charlton, Derby and Portsmouth.
“They are former Premier League teams with huge stadiums and huge crowds. That’s why we play this game and why we do it.
“For me personally I’m going back to League One and I can’t wait for the challenge. I think all of the boys will say the same and I’m pleased for the club that we made it happen. Not just the club, but the city and the fans, I hope they’re all excited for next season.
“But, hey, we shouldn’t stop dreaming big, we have to aim high. I don’t want to make any promises but we have to keep dreaming big, why not?
“The pitch is going to be lovely again, there’s still two goals and one ball with the same amount of players on each team, nothing has changed. We have to just keep dreaming big.
“I think personally it was my best season in England so far, especially in terms of clean sheets. The challenge is clear, I want to beat my own record next season.”
What about this crazy relationship with the fans?
“I remember when I first signed that people said that fans up north are the best fans, and I think they proved themselves this season,” he said. “Their support during the whole season has just been magnificent.
“We never would have got promoted without them, there’s no question about that. We helped each other this year and I hope we can help each other in League One next year. I hope people are buzzing.”
Having stated that it’s been his best season in English football to date, we wondered if he’s still looking for more from himself next term.
“The learning process never stops, but I can physically feel that I’ve improved,” he told us. “That makes me think that it doesn’t have to stop here. I can still learn and still do better.
“I know that during the season I had good moments and bad moments, so now next season I’ll look to have more good moments and less bad moments. There is still so much space to improve, and Simmo has given me the space to improve.
“He’s given me confidence and there’s no reason to change anything, I’m pretty sure he’ll do the same for me again next year, so this journey doesn’t stop.
“I’m going to enjoy my break, but when we’re back in four weeks I’ll be trying to be a better version of myself again. I’ve set some standards and now I’m looking forward to the challenge of setting them even higher.
“That’s how I work, we’ve got promoted, which is brilliant, and I’m going to enjoy it, but when things settle down I won’t be satisfied with that. Like I said, we have to aim as high as possible.”
“I’m going home during the break,” he confirmed. “My mum told me we better finish top three so I was home three weeks earlier, so I think I might get told off a bit.
“I think she will understand, but I think if I wasn’t taking a medal home with me she might have been angry! I’m not sure if she even managed to watch the final because I think she was maybe working.
“I’ll face her, but I think if I wear the medal round my neck when I see her she should be ok.
“I’m looking forward to seeing my family, I haven’t seen them since June last year so I’m just going to spend time with them and friends. That’s all I’m going to do, that’s my holiday, and I don’t need to do anything else. I’m so looking forward to it.
“Just finally, I want to say thank you to the fans, I’ve just done my job, but they’ve been brilliant.”
