Hi, my name is Daniel Gyollai, I’m a Hungarian goalkeeper for Peterborough United in League One, England’s third tier.
I signed to the club at the beginning of August, leaving Wigan Athletic behind. It’s been a busy few months getting settled in a new city, finding a new place to live and moving down here with my girlfriend and our dog.
I’ve joined 2 other goalkeepers already at the club – Christy Pym, who was last year’s League One Golden Glove winner, and Will Blackmore who had come through the academy and signed his first professional contract. My new GK coach is Mark Tyler, the club legend having played 419 games, so I’m in good hands. I’ve been made to feel a part of the group, and we have a good working relationship, pushing each other to be better.
I’ve played a lot of pre-season games, keeping 6 clean sheets and conceding 3 goals in 8 games. I carried good form over from pre-season, when I made my debut in September in the EFL Trophy, drawing 3-3 with Burton Albion and then beating them by a penalty shootout, me saving Burton’s last penalty. So far I’ve been the second choice to Christy in the league whilst making appearances in the cups. The boys have been on a roll, winning 5 out of the last 6 games in the league meanwhile I played my second game in the Trophy beating Fulham U21’s 4-2 with myself having an excellent game, making a few vital saves when the game was 0-0.
We’ve played two games a week for four weeks – playing on every Saturday and Tuesday, so games have been coming thick and fast. But, hopefully, we can carry this form over a hectic Christmas period and keep the chance of achieving promotion to the Championship.
Personally, I’m pushing to give our gaffer Darren Ferguson a headache about his goalkeeper situation, doing my best to improve and show him why I deserve my chance to play in the league. So far, Christy has been in good form, but I’m always ready if needed to step up and perform.
We have Oxford United in the FA Cup on the 7th November where I’m hoping to play and do well again, having watched FA cup games as a kid it’d be surreal to step on the pitch in the competition, and hopefully qualify to the next round. Straight after that on the 10th November, we have Cambridge United in the EFL trophy, so this could be a chance to play two games out of a possible four for me.
For the last year and a half I’ve been wearing AB1GK products, not just the gloves but the padded base layer s and a lot of AB1 leisurewear and I can honestly say that everything is of the highest quality. Most importantly, I have full confidence in my gloves, allowing me to concentrate on my own performance fully. I’m proud to be part of the team and to represent a company with so much desire always to improve and make goalkeeping accessible to everyone.
Thank you for reading this, hope you have a good rest of the year, but most importantly stay safe.