Soccer: Show-stopper Paston unfazed by frenzy

Goalkeeper Mark Paston celebrates the All Whites' win against Bahrain.Photo / Getty Images

The media couldn't get enough of Mark Paston on Saturday night, but when they finished with the All Whites goalkeeper he discovered, to his horror, the team bus had left without him from the Westpac Trust Stadium for the Copthorne Hotel along Oriental Parade.

Furrows appeared on his forehead fleetingly as he scanned the horizon from the side entrance to the Cake Tin, but the 32-year-old from Hastings didn't flinch.

He kept his cool, just as he had done almost two hours earlier when smothering a 50th minute penalty kick from lanky defender Sayed Mohammad to send 35,194 delirious New Zealand fans into raptures of celebration.

That save helped the All Whites beat Bahrain, and book their flights to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup finals, the first time in 27 years and only the second time in New Zealand's history of the beautiful game.

The 1-0 victory in the Asia/Oceania qualifier was enough after Bahrain dominated the opening leg at home in Manama but failed to score - for which they paid dearly on Saturday night again despite dominating the early stages of the game.

While the press made much of striker Rory Fallon's 44th-minute goal, indubitably the match will go down in history for that penalty Paston thwarted.

Fallon was 3 months old when his father, Kevin, was assistant coach of the All Whites' previous trip to the 12th World Cup in Spain in 1982. Paston has a 10-week-old son, Jack, as the new heir to that throne.

Whether baby Jack will ever attain the legendary status bestowed on his reluctant hero of a father, let alone lace up a pair of soccer boots, only time will tell.

Suffice it to say Jack was snuggled up in a baby pouch with his mother, Amie, in a seat in section 32 of the stadium pulsating to a capacity crowd. He blissfully slept through the din, a cacophony to which his mother was adding.

Paston said: "He [baby Jack] was strapped in front of my wife, so [it's something] good to look back on."

The goalkeeper, who has settled in Wellington with the Phoenix franchise in the A-League, wasn't sold on the "legendary" status and other countless superlatives some in the media were throwing around like confetti at the press conference.

"I'm a little uncomfortable with that sort of talk, but yeah. Look, Rory scored the winner and the boys defended amazingly, especially for the second half, so I'm pretty uncomfortable with vogues."