Keith Treacy

So then you start thinking, I tell you what, I'll aim for the post and I'll bring it in a yard inside the post.

Before you know it, you're hitting it straight down the middle and you're hoping the keeper doesn't stay where he is.

It's a mental game that I was never any good at.

But the merits of it will be debated all day long.

But I think it doesn't...

There is an element of lottery to it.

It doesn't always go down to technical ability or how good you are as a player.

Well, if I seen a player doing it, I mean, I remember, I can't remember the player that missed a penalty for Brentford, was it Django O'Tara?

He missed a penalty and Keith Andrews said, you know, I see him doing them type of things in training all the time.

If I was the manager of a Premier League football club and I seen a player practising penalties and he was doing a hop, a skip and a jump and doing panenkas,

during the training session I would say look if you're messing over there that's no problem but I would also take him to one side and say you do that on a Saturday and you miss and there's going to be hell to pay by the way the hop and the skip and the jump I was never into it I think when you win a penalty the percentage of you scoring is probably up around 75-80% if you study your run up and you kill your momentum as you're addressing the ball I think all of a sudden that goes closer the percentage is starting

leaning into the goalkeeper again I think you just you know put your foot through it and aim for the corner low and hard it's as simple as that but it's never that simple every every time I went up I'd be saying go to the keeper's left and as I started to get closer to the ball it would be whip it across and keep go straight down the middle keep and my head would just go all over the place and I suppose I had a little bit of self-awareness because I just stopped taking penalties after that

I think it just comes down to mental strength, to be completely honest with you.

And just having that bit of inner confidence and that inner bit of belief that you're going to score the next one.

And to be fair, look, I know Alan Brown missed the penalty.

I'm sure he feels absolutely, you know, as low as a snake's belly.

But I believe the environment, I listened to Troy speaking after it, saying, you know, he's not going to throw any shade on him.

I'm sure the country isn't throwing any shade on Alan Brown.

And there's not a lot of professional footballers that would be throwing shade on him, thinking, you know...

technically it could have been a better penalty of course it could have it wasn't the best stroke it was fairly central but I wouldn't have took one and in that huddle if somebody said you know who wants to take penalties I'd have kept my arms down I'd have said look I'll go before the goalkeeper that's how nerve wracking these things are so