That’s only in league games. Lavery’s first goal for us was a penalty against Crawley in the League Cup. Can’t remember if he stuttered his run for that one, but he did for the 2 EFL trophy shootouts that he took part in (and scored both times - despite putting it to the same side that the keeper went).
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PS Did Gordon’s attempt against Harrogate count as a miss or a goal since he stuck in the rebound? (same as Andy Cook did - twice!)
I think one of the issues with penalties is that it takes (sometimes) a ridiculous amount of time from when the penalty is awarded to when it’s taken, it can take 1-2 minutes to execute, leaving the taker too much time to think about it. If we had VAR in this league, even longer. Players must take much of the blame for this with their theatrical behaviour and other time-wasting tactics when playing to a crowd.
Does anyone notice with no crowds, a lot less theatrics? No rolling over and over a dozen times or faking injury, a lot of the foreign players incorporated that in to “our” game and it was none the better for it.
O Connor all day for me, dont think he ever missed a penalty for us. Never faffed about, side foot,accurate and with power. Too much trying to look cocky these days.
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Also depends a bit on the state of the game. Lot easier to take one at 2 or 3 nil than a vital one near the end or in the 90th minute! (eg Bramhall Lane)
A goal is 192 square feet.
Within that in each of the top corners there are about 12 square feet of space that if you hit it with any kind of power the keeper has no chance.
That was O’Connor territory. No cat and mouse just a good enough and confident enough footballer to be able to hit that reasonably sized rectangle in the top corner of the goal from 12 yards with a decent amount of power.
Lavery’s pen by comparison was weak and a lovely savable height. The thing that nearly saved him was that it was far enough into the corner that the keeper had to just stop it with no control over where it was heading out to which nearly gave Lavery the Josh “get out of jail” rebound.
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It’s a miss. If a player pops it in from the rebound it counts as a goal from open play.
The best penalty taker for Walsall, or anybody else probably, was a long time ago: Allan Clarke. He never missed for us, Fulham, Leicester, Leeds or England, and got them when it mattered. He put one away in the 2-0 cup win at Stoke and scored the winner in the last minute to set up the tie with the Baggies at the Hawthorns in the League Cup. Scored for England in the famous losing draw with Poland too. Ice cold and efficient.
Of the rest, Martin O’Connor. Foul, whistle, goal.
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Again Alan Clarke was at the Stoke game and NO way was he ever going to miss. I also remember one game think against QPR when we had a pen down the old laundry end but a big old row went on for ages so Alan Clarke just sat on the ball till it was over then bingo ball into net zero problem. UTS
Slight revision on Lavery’s penalty. As I watched the highlights I realised that his stuttered run up actually did the job. Orient’s keeper actually began to push off with his left foot before Lavery got to the ball. Which is the whole point of the stutter. Lavery’s problem is that having decided on the stutter he executed the rest of his routine like somebody who had been told he could only take a two step run up and did the rest very conventionally in that he had chosen a corner, kept his head down and hit it as hard as a two step run up could afford towards that corner. If he had confidence in his stutter and the rest of his technique he needed to keep his head up and adjusted his strike because as it turned out the keeper was committed to a dive to his right and so Lavery had half a goal to roll his penalty into.
If you’re going to do the stuttered run up you need to have the confidence to see the whole thing through. I think Lavery panicked half way through the routine. Anyway, here’s a picture that hopefully explains it better than I can.
Yep he did everything right, was just a simple side foot in to the other corner. Not much point in the stutter if you have already chosen your spot.
I was thinking we have had enough practice of penalties what with the shootouts we have had! Didn’t we go over a season without getting a penalty at all not so many years back, or was it one penalty in a season, something like that.
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Note also the two Orient players in the box before the kick is taken and the keeper a yard off his line. With VAR, retake the kick.
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Clarke was definitely the best I ever saw for technique and confidence. Think I posted elsewhere a while ago describing how it looked as though he would place it to his left ie the goalkeeper’s right only to put it in the opposite corner with a barely perceptible last minute kind of stutter. Nothing like what some do now. I do however seem to remember him missing one when he varied his action. It might have been for England under 23’s.
Think Tony Richards usually put them away as well. Perhaps antrich9 can post his record.
One of those rules that is rarely implemented for some reason.
In that case, so far this season we have taken 16 penalties and only scored 10 of them!
I miss those days when we got a penalty and it was a forgone conclusion we would score. Mart was the best spot kicker taker Ive seen in any division
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Grigg was pretty good.
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The keeper was way off his line before Lavery kicked the ball. P.T.'s photo clearly demonstrates that.
When I saw the highlights yesterday, I rewound the incident, the keeper’s feet were definitely off the line.
There’s a lineman very close to the goalkeeper whose specific job is to make sure the keeper’s feet are on the goal line PRIOR to the ball being kicked.
The officials are probably going to get disciplined after the assessors report.
IMHO, the penalty should have been re-taken.
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Didn’t he always sidefoot just inside the right hand post just off the floor and out of reach of goalie.(When the keeper couldn’t move until the ball was kicked)
He did assuming you mean Clarke.