The Perfect Penalty 
The Perfect Penalty
Stuart Pearce. Chris Waddle. Gareth Southgate. Paul Ince. David Batty. All Scottish heros for one reason - they have missed vital penalties for England. But it's not just our friends south of the border who miss from twelve yards. Holland have gone out on penalties more times than they will care to remember and Rangers UEFA cup run was ended by a German goalkeeper. It has even been known on rare occasions for Motherwell players to miss crucial spot kicks.
Last season however, we achieved perfection. In league and cup competitions our lads hit the net a staggering eleven times out of eleven. Surely this has to be some kind of record?
Shaun Teale was the designated penalty taker at the start of the season. He never let us down in three attempts although he did require a re-take to beat Alan Combe. After Teale's unfortunate departure, the responsibility fell to Ged Brannan. Ged has never looked like missing a penalty and hopefully that will continue for a long time. That brings up the point of this record coming to an end. It is certain that the sequence will be broken and when it does we will just have to grin and bear it. As a regular taker, Ged seems to be the best we've had in a long time. Owen Coyle never inspired confidence and despite his great scoring record, TC frequently failed from the spot. Luc Nijholt was fairly solid but my memory runs out at Davie Cooper and Colin O'Neill - and both of them had an occasional slip.
There are some people who believe that penalty shootouts require nerve, skill and technique. Others put it all down to luck. Whichever school of thought is correct, there seems to be plenty of it at Fir Park. We had our first experience of a shoot out in 1985 when John Philliben lost a semi final against Celtic. Since then however, we have been successful against Morton, Clydebank, Caley Thistle and Raith Rovers with only Alloa beating us from the spot.
Our penalty record:
(99/00)
Raith Rovers - Thomas, Studs, Goodman, Spencer, Doesburg
Aberdeen - Brannan, Teale
Dundee Utd - Teale x2
St Johnstone - Brannan
Ayr Utd - Brannan
(In shootouts)
1985 - lost to Celtic, League Cup semi final
1991 - won at Morton, Scottish Cup quarter final
1995 - won at Clydebank, League Cup second round
1996 - lost to Alloa, League Cup second round
1997 - won against Caley Thistle, League Cup second round
1999 - won at Raith Rovers, League Cup second round
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