There’s something about penalty shootouts that always bring a bit of spice to an evening and, of course, even more so when it’s your team that wins, as was the case with the Blues when Fleetwood came to town on Tuesday night.
“We stayed calm, and it’s funny because we practiced penalties before the first group game and we did again on Monday,” manager Paul Simpson explained. “It’s always daft because I don’t think you can ever practice for them properly.
“The way we used to approach it at the FA was to prepare for penalties by having a clear mindset of what you need to do. One of the things I learned from the FA was about the pressure points when it comes to taking penalties.
“One of the main ones is when the whistle goes and your panicking about whether you’re one of the players who is going to take one or not.
“We took that away and after watching them prepare on Monday I just said right, this is the order, this is what you’re going to be doing, and I had it all the way up to the seventh taker.
“We took that uncertainty away, and I asked if everybody was comfortable with that. They all said yes, so we went with it.”
And Taylor Charters showed once again that there is ice in the veins as he popped up to take the last of the five, winning the bonus point with a drilled finish.
“I didn’t know he’d done it before,” the manager admitted. “It was only when Tayls walked up that Gav told me he’d done it last season. That gave me a little bit of lift, to be honest.
“He was calm as you like. Jordan Gibson practices penalties every day, he’s always out there with other lads having a go. I’m going to be honest, I’ve never seen him strike it straight down the middle like he did.
“He usually does it a different way, so why he decided to do that, I don’t know. That’s something he’ll learn from, but the rest of them all stepped up and tucked it away.
“Also, good save from Mick. He got across the right way, and we nicked the goal at the end to take it to penalties, and over the shootout we deserved it.”
That extra point makes things interesting heading into the final group fixture against Barrow.
“Whatever happened on Tuesday, the Barrow game will mean something anyway, because it’s important,” he said. “It’s a game where we have supporters coming in. We had over a thousand again on Tuesday, to come and back these players, so it will mean something.
“It’s a local derby, a chance for players to keep up to match speed, and we’ll see come that game how everybody is. Getting the penalty win is important for the players, because it’s important they get a reward for the work they put in.
“If we’d come away losing 1-0 it would have been a really quiet dressing room, but they’re buzzing in there. I talked about character at the weekend, they’ve shown character again.
“It’s always difficult in these types of games, you don’t really know whether the players are thinking it’s - punishment isn’t the right word, but it’s like a bit of a comedown to be involved.
“But I know they all want to play in every game. I told them to enjoy the challenge and, to be far, from the youngest to the oldest they all really stuck to the task, showed good discipline in the shape, and we played a bit of football. I think we deserved a point from it in the end and I’m delighted that they did the penalties properly as well.”
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