He’s gorra go that Keates!
Practice does no harm, but there are still so many factors at play during those few seconds when a penalty is taken that even extensive practice won’t guarantee you success. Part of the drama of them I suppose.
I’d like to think that the majority of preparation went into preparing for the 90 mins rather than the penalties that followed. There are so many factors that can differ. Who says the preferred takers were on the pitch? Given our strongest team, there were at least two players (Zeli, who has scored one this season, and Ferrier, who was desperate to take the one against Plymouth) that would have replaced two of those who stepped up.
If the perfect penalty is to hit it high, then we’d still be playing now. There are far more factors to take into consideration than where the taker is going to aim.
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I can’t see how Macclesfield was a “nothing” game when potentailly the reward for winning it was Man Utd away at some point, or some other plum fixture.
I can’t see it as a lottery either. If your life depended on it, which of our former players would you want to take a penalty? Buckley or Bamber, as a for instance. Or would it not matter because it is luck. And in goal would we want Jimmy Walker or Jonny Brain, or would it not make a difference?
It’s strange how the good players are always so much luckier with penalties than the not so good ones. 
I’m confident in Deano, and I’m sure we’ll do better next time because he will learn from it.
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That’s not really the case is it though? Lionel Messi has a terrible penalty record but it can’t be through lack of talent surely?
And it’s a nothing game because it’s been viewed that way as a competition for a very long time and if we did draw United we’d only be playing their kids and would do nothing with the money, just like we didn’t after Chelsea.
Yes, it is the case, the Messi point is well made but an exception to the rule. When Don Penn scored his penalty against Sheff Utd all those years ago were you saying “might as well let John Horne take it, it’s only down to luck anyway”? I doubt it.
As for playing the Manyoo kids, maybe, but we’d be playing them in front of 60,000 plus paying customers, and the money would dwarf that from the Chelsea game.
Games in the Leyland/Johnson/Caribou cup often feel like “nothing” games, yet for some reason the Wembley final didn’t. You have to win the unglamorous ones to get a chance at a bit of glory. Blackpool home and away in 1983 anybody? Not that mouth-watering, was it?
Welcome back Bernie 
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Macclesfield ain’t that good , the odds am in fact 511 to 1.
Anyroad it ain’t just down to the taker.
Two of Englands finest ,Shilton and Seaman , for some reason never seemed to get near
one.
No because as I said above there is a certain amount of basic skill involved. Skills that some players have and others don’t. John Guthrie or somebody like that are not professional footballers because of their ball striking capabilities so OBVIOUSLY there are players in the team better suited than others. But past the basics of ball striking and practice it’s down to guessing the right way, the keeper not guessing the right way, pressure, conditions ect. All are massive variables if you don’t want to call it luck.
So? My point wasn’t the volume of money it was the likelihood of doing anything with it anyway. As a fan why would I have any confidence that money is reinvested? Because we spent 35K on Morgan Ferrier? After Wembley, Chelsea and selling all of our players?
The Wembley final didn’t because it was Wembley. And the context is that we’ve never been before. We can practice penalties all we want, we’re not getting to Wembley in the League cup,
Goalkeepers are individuals, and studying video of their previous attempts to save penalties reveals their preference to habitually go left or right for a higher percentage of attempts. That knowledge takes some of the ‘guess’ out of it. Not quite science, but far from blind luck.
Yup, I’m cack at saving pens.
Who in turn are studying videos of which way the strikers like to go.