Well half time and I can honestly say that is the most boring play off final for many years, hope it improves second half FFS
@RobTannerMerc: A pressure penalty and Palace give it to their most experienced goalscorer! City should have given theirs to Nugent! Agreed I said that at the time
Nugent has taken one penalty in his entire career in a game we won 6-0. Not really what i'd call experience.
Good point - but Nugent has also shown an uncanny knack of scoring against Watford and psychologically they (fans and players) would have been distraught watching him place the ball on the spot ...
Where Pearson went wrong was not having gally on the bench to bring on incase of pens. Another tactical fcuk up on his behalf.
So you'd really waste a spot on the subs bench on Gally, purely on the basis that we might get a last minute penalty (because if it was earlier than the last minute, he'd be wasting a spot on the field for the rest of the game!)?
Subs: 13 Logan 03 Konchesky 22 Moore 04 Drinkwater 07 Marshall 09 Vardy 37 Kane No Whitbread. As you pointed out, Vardy was the only debatable one named really. I can't remember now, was Waggy injured? I'd certainly pick Marshall ahead of Gally, even when out of form.
If Nigel had brought on Ben Marshall instead of Danny Drinkwater then Marshall would have took it. He started the season as the designated taker
But again, just a shame about the rest of the play he would have contributed! Honestly, for me, any player who has the confidence to step up under pressure is a penalty taker. Skill-wise it's not that hard. I don't think Knocky bottled it. He made a decision on which way he thought the keeper would go and got it wrong. Could have happened to anyone. If it had gone in, we'd have been talking about how cool he was. Instead we're all asking "why didn't he smash it"! Always the same with penalties.
Thats why I try never to blame the penalty taker if he gets it on target. If he misses then he's an idiot but if the keeper guesses the right way, well done keeper coz you got lucky.
