Conor Sammon F Alloa Athletic b.1986

**Charlie Darwin** · 05/04/2013, 4:50 PM

Serious questions need to be asked about my command of the English language.

**Charlie Darwin** · 06/04/2013, 11:10 PM

Ward missed another penalty, meaning Derby have missed their last four, two apiece.

**DeLorean** · 07/04/2013, 12:21 AM

Yeah, poor penalty, he should have lifted it

But for injuries and penalty misses, Derby could be comfortably in the playoffs. Clough is doing a reasonable job I suppose on a shoestring, but he's lucky he is who he is I think or he could be under a bit of pressure at this stage.

Sammon hit the post with a one on one, should have scored for sure. Mick McCarthy as honest as ever after the game "I was sat in the dressing room and I thought I heard the sirens, the police were coming because it was a robbery!".

**Crosby87** · 07/04/2013, 1:08 AM

Originally Posted by charlie darwin

serious questions need to be asked about my command of the english language.

yes!

**tricky_colour** · 08/04/2013, 2:33 AM

Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Some stats here from every World Cup/Euro Championship penalty shoot-out from 1998 to 2012 (probably not a big sample in fairness). Not one shot to the top third of the goal was saved, and there was a higher miss rate amongst players aiming for the bottom right than anywhere else bar centre top. One-third of all penalties to the bottom left were saved.

Conclusion? Aim for the top corner.

The danger with that is putting it over the top. My technique was to imagine I was taking corner through the goal frame.
I think that keep it low, so I would try and put it through about 5 feet high, with basically a yard to spare to the side
and above, I felt I was guaranteed not to miss the goal like that it also works out at 13 feet from the goal keepers
feet in a straight line. Good luck to the keeper if he can stop it!! I reckon it's hard to stop even if the keeper
guesses where you are going to put it. Looks better than a low penalty too!!

**DeLorean** · 08/04/2013, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by tricky_colour

My technique was to imagine I was taking corner through the goal frame.

That actually makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately for me I was terrible at taking corners. A master at cutting them though

**Charlie Darwin** · 11/04/2013, 9:43 PM

Spurs-Basle currently in penalties, with Basle leading 2-1 after two apiece. Nice case study on whether the more technical team wins, and where the penalties are struck. No surprise Sigurdsson scored for Spurs and Huddlestone missed.

Basle: low (scored), high (scored), high (scored) high (scored)
Spurs: low (missed) high (scored) high (missed)

Lou Macari banging on about always hitting the target, ignoring the fact the target contains a goalkeeper who's far more mobile than a goalpost.

**DeLorean** · 11/04/2013, 10:20 PM

Haha damn you CD (and PS!). I don't think I'll ever be able to watch a shoot-out again without thinking of this discussion. I thought the fact that Lennon and Defoe weren't there might actually help Spurs in the shoot-out, both extremely likely to miss, particularly Defoe because he'd be stupid enough to take one even though his record is cat. To be fair Huddlestone is certainly not lacking in technical ability and is a lovely striker of a ball normally. I'd say Adebayor has forgotten about his miss already. The Basel penalties were top class. I thought the first guy was going to miss when I saw his unusual run up but he really placed it well. Bale was a bit of a loss, he's taken a couple for Wales in recent times and was very composed in waiting for the keeper to move.

After my bout of shoot-out watching last week and tonight, I'm convinced at this stage you might as well take your chances going high.

**Charlie Darwin** · 11/04/2013, 10:49 PM

There is a mythology that has built up around Huddlestone that he is a lovely technical player in spite of the fact four successive Spurs managers have deemed him unworthy of a regular starting spot. He is the sort of player who hits the ball well once in the entire match and it will be the one highlight everybody remembers from the game. Craig Gardner is another Youtube hero.

Defoe is muck at penalties. I had to laugh when Lou Macari on 3e suggested Spurs would miss having Scott Parker to take penalties. The Basel penalties were lovely, although a couple may have been a bit too central for my liking. The evidence remains that more technically-adept players tend to win shoot-outs

**geysir** · 11/04/2013, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Lou Macari banging on about always hitting the target, ignoring the fact the target contains a goalkeeper who's far more mobile than a goalpost.

Yes, but Brad Friedel is one of the goalkeepers and Brad (God help him) looks as mobile as a tree trunk.

**Charlie Darwin** · 11/04/2013, 11:50 PM

Lou Macari also reckoned Spurs were nailed-on to win the shoot out as Friedel was "really up for it". I think both Lou and Adebayor will be looking to forget this one ASAP.

**Crosby87** · 12/04/2013, 12:01 AM

"Watch yerselves lads, me can still swing em."

**tricky_colour** · 12/04/2013, 2:57 AM

Originally Posted by DeLorean

That actually makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately for me I was terrible at taking corners. A master at cutting them though

Well I figured it was more accurate to aim for something about 40 yards away so even if you missed by 2 yards it's only a 5% error which would probably guarantee hitting the target in a penalty. Might be wishful thinking or a rose tinted memory but I can't recall putting a bad one corner, which makes me wonder how those premiership professionals screw them up. I'd always get them dropping in around the penalty spot.
I could also score fairly easily from a corner by swinging one in from the in-swinger side (assuming no goal keeper!) but that was helped somewhat by wonky goal posts on the school pitch. During my school years I developed from being useless to half decent, but never really play much after that. Played one game for the school team and scored an own goal in it! (but did get an assist

)
My classes 6 a side team also won a knock-out competition between the classes and went on to loose to the cheating staff side with a bent ref (in more ways than one I suspect!!).

I wish I had taken it more seriously now, on the few occasions I played after that I did pretty well but I never really took it seriously being more academically inclined (or so I thought lol).

Ahh...what might have been.....rather than me slagging player off on here people could have been slagging me off instead

**pineapple stu** · 12/04/2013, 6:38 AM

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Spurs-Basle

Random bug-bear of mine, but it's Basel, not Basle! It's a German-speaking city.

**DeLorean** · 12/04/2013, 8:05 AM

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

There is a mythology that has built up around Huddlestone that he is a lovely technical player in spite of the fact four successive Spurs managers have deemed him unworthy of a regular starting spot. He is the sort of player who hits the ball well once in the entire match and it will be the one highlight everybody remembers from the game. Craig Gardner is another Youtube hero.

I agree about Gardner but completely disagree about Huddlestone. I think he's a lovely passer of the ball, not the most mobile obviously but breaks the mold for typical English midfielders. He looked pretty comfortable at centre back actually as well under difficult circumstances, although his headed clearances could have done with more purchase! He was playing pretty regularly under Redknapp as well but was out for most of last season and Sandro went from strength to strength. With the signing of Dembele now though he's hard to see him breaking his way back in, Dembele is very good technically but far more mobile and an aggressive enough tackler as well. It's a very good squad Spurs have assembled really with everybody fit, Parker and Huddlestone will probably be back-ups to Sandro and Dembele. If they could buy a real striker, possibly the Brazilian Leandro that they missed out on in January (although I have no idea how good he is) and get rid of dead wood like Gallas and Defoe they would be going places.

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

The evidence remains that more technically-adept players tend to win shoot-outs

I don't think that was ever in question.

Maybe this should be moved out from here? When the shoot-out ended my first though was to see if there was any new post in the Conor Sammon thread!! Maybe mods could set up a thread 'Penalties' in world football and I would suggest transferring all the posts here from #320?

**paul_oshea** · 12/04/2013, 12:22 PM

Originally Posted by geysir

Yes, but Brad Friedel is one of the goalkeepers and Brad (God help him) looks as mobile as a tree trunk.

I was thinking the same, but he used to be mobile, he is nearly 42 now though so what do you expect? I looked at it thinking he looks very old. He looks more than his age.

2 of their penalties were pretty much straight down the middle, would they have done that if friedel had waited for them to shoot?

**DeLorean** · 12/04/2013, 12:31 PM

Open to correction here but I don't think he was every too great at saving penalties. I predicted before the shoot-out that he wouldn't save any, ye'll just have to take my word for that one or contact my girlfriend on 087******* !!!

**Stuttgart88** · 12/04/2013, 1:37 PM

I think most of us already have her number.

**DeLorean** · 12/04/2013, 1:45 PM

A bit too easy* Stutts but I don't want to look put out so I'll give you a thanks!

Adebayor getting a bit of a slagging over his penalty. Am I going mad by thinking it may have clipped the bar though? (I think I probably am)

*Warning- serious obvious joke risk

**geysir** · 12/04/2013, 1:59 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

I was thinking the same, but he used to be mobile, he is nearly 42 now though so what do you expect? I looked at it thinking he looks very old. He looks more than his age.

It's not a question of what do I expect, just an obvious observation made in reply to another post.
But next time I'll be more positive, as in 'he's sprightly considering his age'