Just a few miles down the road from Selhurst Park, at the Cherry Red Records stadium, Kofi Balmer kept a second successive clean sheet following his debut for AFC Wimbledon away at Bradford last weekend.
In front of the Dons’ home support, Balmer put in a solid defensive display alongside Lee Brown and managed to keep promotion-chasing Barrow at bay in a 2-0 win. Those in SW17 also got a taste of Balmer’s long throw-ins for the first time, which caused havoc all game for The Bluebirds.
On the game itself and his long throw, Balmer said: “Lee Brown is very experienced. I’m young and I’m willing to learn, so it helps having him alongside me. He knows where to be on the pitch and knows what to do. It’s helped me to settle a lot. We didn’t give Barrow much today.
“I’ve had the ability to throw it like that since I was a kid. When you’re up near the box it’s essentially another cross. My brother actually has a longer throw than me! The story behind it is that we were having a competition to see who could throw the ball further. If I can use it to help the team, so be it.”