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Mumbai: One player preparing himself for a potentially demanding evening when Kerala Blasters take on Delhi Dynamos in the second leg of their ISL semi-final in the national capital on Wednesday is Sandip Nandy, the visitors' goalkeeper. "Delhi are the best attacking side in the ISL this season and we know they'll come hard at us," says Nandy, 41. "We want to make the final because we owe it to our fans, who have supported us so well right from the first season." Nandy, whose grandfather and father were both employed with the railways, grew up in Burdwan, about 90 km from Kolkata. With plenty of open space in and around the railway quarters where the family stayed, he took to sports at a young age. "I liked football and cricket in particular," says Nandy, the oldest active player in both Indian football as well as the ISL. "My first mentor was Gautam Sarkar, who himself wanted to be a footballer but had a bad knee injury when he was in class ten." A "die-hard Mohun Bagan fan" since childhood, Nandy grew up idolising striker Sisir Ghosh and used to emulate his hero by practising his headers on the walls of his home with a tennis ball. Sarkar, however, encouraged him to take to goalkeeping keeping his build and athleticism in mind. After a short stint with the Mohun Bagan junior team, Nandy began playing for the senior team in 1998. "That was a different era, when there was no specialised training for goalkeepers," he says. "We used to just train with the rest of the team. Till the time I moved to play for Mahindra United in 2004, I used to travel by a daily passenger train from Burdwan to Kolkata every day. It was about four hours in total of travel time, and then I would train again after getting home. On top of that, our infrastructure wasn't as good back then -- the fields were hard and as goalkeeper you never knew how much you could dive about without hurting yourself." That Indian goalkeepers are now getting exposure to a different standard of training altogether has been the best part of the ISL, feels Nandy, citing his team-mate and goalkeeping coach Graham Stack as an example. Stack was with Arsenal between 2000 and 2006, and a quick chat early in the season with Nandy worked wonders for the latter's confidence. "He's an exceptional human being," says Nandy. "When the tournament began, he read a newspaper article that commended me on my fitness at my age, and then came to me and told me how much he appreciated me for it." Stack began the season as head coach Steve Coppell's number one, but then was quickly overtaken by Nandy, who is six years older than the Englishman. Nandy has gone on to clock nine appearances, four clean sheets -- including in Kochi in the first leg of the semi-final against Delhi -- and holds the Golden Glove. "This year our team started so badly that we didn't believe we would go anywhere after the first five matches," he says. "If we're one draw away from the final, it is purely because of the defence and the midfield. I'm a bit embarrassed to have the Golden Glove -- I may have saved a few goals but we've primarily been so solid because of our defence." He credits the coaching staff, particularly assistant coach Wally Downes, for their emphasis on defence from the first day of the pre-season. "Our team is built around the philosophy that if you have a tight defence, then you can score even inside the last minute," he says. Nandy already has an idea of what he intends to do after he hangs up his gloves. "Football is my profession," he says. "When I started I didn't know I would come this far. After I am done with football, I intend to stay with this game and have already finished my AFC 'C' licence. As long as I am fit and enjoying my football, I intend to carry on."
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