Penalty Taker

I remember listening to that shoot-out at work, ten or twelve of us gathered round the radio.
About 1995 at a guess, give or take a year.

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Hashtag United beat Felixstowe and Walton United 13-12 on penalties today in the FA Cup. Presumably some good penalty takers ( or rubbish goalkeepers) there.

Bump.

Let Roberts take them.

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Let some bloke from the catering staff take 'em, but for clips sake don’t let Lavery EVER take another!

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I’d imagine Guthrie would be a decent penalty taker. Takes a decent free kick so why not a penalty.

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You’d expect a bit of composure too.

If tonight’s starting eleven I think I’d have Lavery at about number seven to take a pen.

I’d go

Holden (finesse)
Guthrie (accuracy)
Adebayo (finisher)
Kinsella (thunderbastard)
Clarke - see Kinsella
Wes - trickery
Lavery - hmm
Norman - No man
Nurse - pass me my pills
Scarr - scared
Roberts - Eat Pray Miss

How about the non-starters - e.g. Osadebe and Gordon?

Lavery’s scored a couple already hasn’t he.

Certainly feels a bit of a weakness at the club currently especially among the strikers.

That 12/13 season G**gg seemed to score about 10 of them from ones Fab Brandy won by dribbling past half a team.

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Martin O’Connor was the best And most consistent penalty taker I ever saw for us. He could kick the ball hard and high and into a corner.

Notable mentions for Willie Naughton and Alan Buckley though the Bucks miss against Blues still rankles with me.

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Bradshaw was good. Think he missed a couple, but with his technique you at least felt confident as he stepped up.

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I can’t believe that ANY professional football player can’t take a decent penalty? i don’t think there are many jobs out there that someone could be mediocre at and still get paid.

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I agree. It is basically the skill of hitting the ball with a modicum of accuracy at a decent velocity.

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Willie Naughton and Paul Jones ( scored a fair few in 87-8 )

Colin Harrison deadly from the spot late 60’s / early 70’s.

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I would say at the time of the kick it is so important to the result of the game that it is 10% in the feet and 90% in the head.

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Lavery was thinking too much about his little skip and it put him slightly out of step. He tried to correct it but then his head was gone.

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John Hodge was the best in my opinion. Just put your laces through it!!

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O’Connor is one of the best I have ever seen for any team. Every single one right in the corner with power. You can keep all your stop/starts, give the keeper the eyes and all that nonsense. Power and accuracy wins the day.

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Our penalty taking conversion rate since Dean Smith left:

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Lavery struggles to score from 4 yards out, so the chances of him scoring from the penalty spot were even slimmer.

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