How good were our penalties?!

[Lady Whistledown]

Couldn't believe it myself, I was dreading the prospect of penalties, with all Swindon's strikers and dead ball specialists.

I thought our players would be cacking it, and do awful soft, carefully placed penalties gently into the keeper's arms (with a Knight style shuffle). But they were all cracking spot kicks, mostly into the unreachable top corner. Surprised by some of the takers too, I was particularly worried that Oatway would be a keen volunteer, but fair play to them all for the guts and skill they showed under pressure.

And fair play to Ben Roberts- we've all taken the piss out of Mooney but his wasn't by any means the worst penalty ever. Look at the replay, Roberts has made an absolutely superb save, especially if you consider Mooney hit it pretty hard.

Credit where credit's due lads, Swindon can call it lucky, but you can either hit the back of the net under pressure or you can't, and we proved we could.

 

[Bobby's Gull]

The Albion lads held it together to be fair, was absolutely bricking it when Virgo stepped up to take one though!

ONLY ONE ADAM VIRGO

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

I was expecting Lord Virgo to lean back and put it into orbit. And I thought he had done, but it was perfectly placed.

By the way what was Piercy showing to the South Stand after his kick - he took off his shirt and showed the inside of his forearm. Was it a tattoo or the fact that his pulse was normal ?

 

[kevinsmith]

4 taken 4 scored nothing more to say

 

[Simster]

In answer to your question Edna, I don't know - I couldn't watch any of ours. I did watch the Swindon ones though. Top.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Chippy
Iwelumo
Piercy
Virgo

 

[BUTTERBALL]

All very good and impossible to save.

All credit to Carpenter for going forward to take the first. That requires bottle. He was probably out most consistent player over the two legs.

 

[Seagull Stew]

Actually looking at the Roberts save, it hit him on the wrist of his left arm as he was already on the floor to the right. With the force of the shot, the chances of that ball actually rebounding away from the goal must have been pretty slim.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

It occurred to me when we were struggling last night: where would we have been this season without Carpenter?

Probably his best season for us, in terms of holding the otherwise limited midfield together.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Every one of those penalty takers had, metaphorically speaking, balls like coconuts. Cast-iron 1000% heroes, all of them.

How on earth do they not go to pieces under that sort of pressure? Maybe only one Mr Mooney is best placed to answer that.

 

[JJ McClure]

I was expecting Lord Virgo to lean back and put it into orbit. And I thought he had done, but it was perfectly placed.

Have to admit I was worried when I saw him step forward, but he roofed it and no keeper was gonna get to that.

Virgs

 

[The Large One]

TWO (count them - two) people said to me "We'll bury our penalties, and Mooney will miss his..."

But we cracked our in beautifully. Big Chris' pen was a peach. Virgo's was heading for the railway line, but thankfully the net got in the way. The personnel we used was as I expected (although not necessarily in that order of course), and I would have thought OGH was going to take the 5th.

 

[Lammy]

I think we should declare Virgo man of the match for every game next season as a mark of respect. Irrespective of whether he actually plays or not!

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Every one of those penalty takers had, metaphorically speaking, balls like coconuts. Cast-iron 1000% heroes, all of them.

True words from the NSC wordsmith (2000-2001).

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Bet Virgo feels like posting 25 copies of the match video to Steve Coppell right now....

 

[Barnet Seagull]

In answer to your question Edna, I don't know - I couldn't watch any of ours. I did watch the Swindon ones though. Top.

Same as.

Terrible viewing.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

I must admit that when Swindon's first penalty blasted into the roof of the net I had a sinking feeling, and when Big Chris stepped up I just felt a miss was on the cards.

 

[B.M.F]

All very good and impossible to save.

All credit to Carpenter for going forward to take the first. That requires bottle. He was probably out most consistent player over the two legs.

Probably our most consistent player this season I would say

 

[Stumpy Tim]

I think we should declare Virgo man of the match for every game next season as a mark of respect. Irrespective of whether he actually plays or not!

If we go up he should be awarded an immediate testimonial

 

[Man of Harveys]

Funny that, I somehow experienced a weird sense of serenity during the pens and managed to watch them all.

I can only think that we'd so obviously been dead and buried so recently before them that it hadn't really sunk in that, actually, we were still in it; everything else seemed a bit of a bonus. Weird.

But I also can't ever remember losing it at ANY Albion game in the last ooh, 33 years as much as I did at the end last night (I'm 33). Feeling a tad embarrassed about it today but it couldn't be helped - the plot was utterly lost.