Can we all agree...?

[BR0B0T]

None of you could have stepped out in front of 80+ thousand people and took one.

Having got the jelly legs at an under-15s five-a-side tournament and scuffed my shootout kick into the ground, the ball pea-rolling into the keeper's waiting foot, I wholly agree!

oxf*rd that shit. They're professionals paid bucket loads. Don't volunteer if you haven't got the stomach.

And pissing practice penalties. No excuse not to.

Johnny Wilkinson didn't complain you can't replicate the tension or atmosphere of a major game. He just practised to the point what he did was natural and he could capture the training ground feel by concentration.

Johnny Wilkinson was a professional rugby player for whom 75% of his job was to kick a dead ball between the posts. Not really comparable. As Tiger Woods once said, you should be worried as a sportsperson if you aren't nervous.

[leon]

oxf*rd that shit. They're professionals paid bucket loads. Don't volunteer if you haven't got the stomach.

And pissing practice penalties. No excuse not to.

Johnny Wilkinson didn't complain you can't replicate the tension or atmosphere of a major game. He just practised to the point what he did was natural and he could capture the training ground feel by concentration.

Johnny Wilkinson was a professional rugby player for whom 75% of his job was to kick a dead ball between the posts. Not really comparable. As Tiger Woods once said, you should be worried as a sportsperson if you aren't nervous.

That was me at 9 this morning

[tmesis]

Swift in pre match interviews said he had practiced by taking 2-3 penalties and it hadnt gone very wellso basically wouldnt be volunteering.

That is mental because firstly only taking 2-3 penalties is absurd, thats not practise. If i was a footballer i'd take 10 penalties a day, get effing expert at it and be my team's designated taker.

The absurdity that is the line "you can't practice penalties" is that of all the things in football that you could actualy practice, its penalties!
..

There's also a difference between practicing the technique of taking a penalty, and just running up at taking shots at a keeper. Even if you are incredibly nervous, if you know how to take a good penalty you'll have more chance of scoring than someone just going for a hit and hope approach.

Moore's pen would actually have been a decent pen, had it been under the bar - I know that sounds a stupid/obvious thing to say, but it would have been a difficult one for a keeper to save if it was a bit lower. His was a good idea, poor executed. Obita's on the other hand, was almost perfect for a keeper, rather like the one they missed.

I don't blame either player though. They had the bottle to step up and take one, and they deserve credit for that.

[Ian Royal]

Moore's penalty was probably struck a bit too hard, if you're going into the roof of the net, it doesn't need the power as the keeper's got no chance. The extra power makes it a little less reliable accuracy wise. But it's a really really tough penalty to take hitting it there. Fair play if he'd practised it and it just went wrong on the night, but if he tried that without a deal of practise it was somewhat foolhardy.

I haven't braved watching them back though.

[Davezk]

Kelly's looked pretty spectacular on the TV angle but the reality was he was a bit lucky IMO as he almost hit the bar.

[BR0B0T]

Johnny Wilkinson was a professional rugby player for whom 75% of his job was to kick a dead ball between the posts. Not really comparable. As Tiger Woods once said, you should be worried as a sportsperson if you aren't nervous.

That was me at 9 this morning

Blacking up in 2017? C'mon m7!

[genome]

Kelly's looked pretty spectacular on the TV angle but the reality was he was a bit lucky IMO as he almost hit the bar.

Isn't that what you want from a penalty? As close to the woodwork as possible so the keeper has no chance.

It was a cracking pen

[Davezk]

Kelly's looked pretty spectacular on the TV angle but the reality was he was a bit lucky IMO as he almost hit the bar.

Isn't that what you want from a penalty? As close to the woodwork as possible so the keeper has no chance.

It was a cracking pen

I see why your point is made but i thought it was a wild pen rather than controlled. Yes it was unsaveable but could have easily hit the bar.

[CountryRoyal]

Johnny Wilkinson was a professional rugby player for whom 75% of his job was to kick a dead ball between the posts. Not really comparable. As Tiger Woods once said, you should be worried as a sportsperson if you aren't nervous.

That was me at 9 this morning

He genuinely looks like a crack head who's just been convicted of rape.

[BR0B0T]

That was me at 9 this morning

He genuinely looks like a crack head who's just been convicted of rape.

don't think leon was ever convicted

[genome]

[RoyalBlue]

Boy! This thread was about as sporting as fishing with a stick of dynamite or a massive electric current. Can't believe it caught so many. What's depressing is that so many really do want to point the finger and blame.

It was sodding depressing but think back to last season and look how far we've come.

Feel proud that once again our team have found an even more painful way for us to suffer in a playoff final - Archie's penalty, Rougier's head, Jem's deflected shot and now 3-1 up on penalties!

Just what will they manage to find to trump that next time around? Maybe we will be winning 4-0 and then Donald will mistakenly press the red button seconds before the ref is due to blow for full time!

[CountryRoyal]

More surprised at the attitude that we were seemingly wrong with our approach. I'm guessing had we gone out and really attacked and lost 4-0 people would have been much happier?

Doubt Huddersfield are complaining.

[leon]

Doubt Huddersfield are complaining.

[CountryRoyal]

Doubt Huddersfield are complaining.

I'm sorry but it's true. No one would have batted an eye lid had we won in the same style. Both teams had a similar game plan (although admittedly they edged it). Football has winners and losers and it just so happens we came out on the wrong end, again. It's just the way it goes. Think people are being a bit naive if they expected free flowing attacking football in a £170m game, especially against a team of Huddersfield's quality.

[leon]

Doubt Huddersfield are complaining.

I'm sorry but it's true. No one would have batted an eye lid had we won in the same style. Both teams had a similar game plan (although admittedly they edged it). Football has winners and losers and it just so happens we came out on the wrong end, again. It's just the way it goes. Think people are being a bit naive if they expected free flowing attacking football in a £170m game, especially against a team of Huddersfield's quality.

[bcubed]

Doubt Huddersfield are complaining.

I'm sorry but it's true. No one would have batted an eye lid had we won in the same style. Both teams had a similar game plan (although admittedly they edged it). Football has winners and losers and it just so happens we came out on the wrong end, again. It's just the way it goes. Think people are being a bit naive if they expected free flowing attacking football in a £170m game, especially against a team of Huddersfield's quality.

yep

although not sure they edged it by much

I'm sure the intention was not to play for penalties but I don't see an issue with keeping it tight and hoping for a break away goal. Its not as if this is a new approach for us anyway.

Having said that penalties were always possible so a tad more practice wouldn't have gone amiss

[maffff]

Should have been over inside twenty minutes.

After that it was relatively even and we seemed to be growing into it. When Kelly came on this looked like our chance to seize the game.

Penalties are a crapshoot. Even when we were a goal up I wasn't confident.

If you ever wondered what £170m flying away looked like, that was Liam Moore's penalty.

[Hound]

Huddersfield managed to get promoted without winning a game in the playoffs and scored one (own) goal in 330 minutes during them....don't see anyone there complaining about that

Don't blame anyone at all, Stam could have gone for it a bit more but maybe the players were too tired etc

Winning promotion is life changing - not just for the players but it also allows the club to pay staff more, employ more people etc. It also changes the mentality of the entire town/city whatever Reading is nowadays. I'm sure this pressure is on the players mind whatever they would tell you

[Davezk]

I was playing 7 a side at work the other day and my team got a penalty... full size goal to aim at.

The lads thought it would be funny if i took it (sporting my Reading shirt) as retribution for Monday.

I missed... parried onto the crossbar. Que further laughing at Reading.