The 8 penalties Brighton missed in their League One title winning season
Brighton & Hove Albion have a proud recent tradition of missed penalties before Neal Maupay came along and started squandering opportunities from 12 yards.
This inability to score spot kicks reach its nadir in the 2010-11 League One title winning season. Brighton missed an astonishing eight penalties across the campaign with five different players of guilty of the crime.
So bad were the Albion that by the midway point in the season, Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named took to hiding behind the Withdean dugout whenever his side were awarded a penalty as he could no longer bear to watch.
We can look back and laugh partly because those succession of misses did not prove costly. Poyet You Know Who built a team that were so good that they could afford to bugger up eight penalties and still be crowned champions of League One with four games left to play.
Here, we recall all eight of those penalty misses from a single season. Hopefully, it will cheer Monsieur Maupay up if he happens to be reading.
1) Glenn Murray v Leyton Orient (H), 01/09/2010
Russell Slade returned to Withdean when he brought his Leyton Orient side to the Theatre of Trees in the Paint Pot. Brighton had bigger fish to fry and so were not entirely bothered to end up eliminated via a 2-0 defeat in which former Albion favourite Dean Cox notched one of the goals.
The honour of missing the first penalty of the season went to Glenn Murray, who placed his spot kick at a comfortable height for Jamie Jones to save to his left.
That Murray, Elliott Bennett or Matt Sparrow barely moved a muscle to convert the rebound which was easily reachable says everything about how much the Albion cared about the competition.
2) Elliott Bennet v Peterborough United (A), 30/10/2010
Bennett was the next man to miss from 12 yards in the top of the table clash against Peterborough United at London Road, a strange moment given that Bennett was otherwise outstanding during the Nightmare on London Road.
He had already whipped over a free kick for birthday boy Ashley Barnes to head Brighton into a 16th minute lead. Five minutes later, Bennett was hauled to the ground in the box with the only possible result a spot kick.
Bennet duly dusted himself down but his penalty was too close to Joe Lewis who kept it out, one of eight world class saves the home goalkeeper made over the 90. The Albion also hit the bar twice.
Neither Lewis’ inspired display of goalkeeping nor the woodwork could deny Brighton three points; their interventions simply prevented the Posh losing by double figure.
It eventually finished Peterborough 0-3 Brighton with the Seagulls’ performance that day widely considered to be the best that any Brighton team has ever delivered away from home.
3) Chris Wood v Southampton (A), 23/11/2010
On November 20th 2010, 19-year-old striker Chris Wood marked his first Brighton appearance on loan from West Bromwich Albion with a convincing and successful spot kick in a 2-2 home draw with Bristol Rovers.
It looked like the Albion had finally stumbled upon someone who could take a penalty without turning supporters (and Poyet You Know Who) into nervous wrecks.
Wrong. Three days was all it took for Wood to find the ability to score unchallenged from 12 yards deserting him when he missed away at Southampton a little over 72 hours after his goal scoring debut.
To be fair to Wood, it was an excellent save from Kelvin Davis in the Saints goal as he went full stretch to his right to turn the spot kick around the post. Neither side was able to break the deadlock and so it finished 0-0.
4) Elliott Bennett v FC United of Manchester (H), 27/11/2010
Four days after Wood’s miss at St Mary’s, Bennett was back on penalties for the visit of part timers FC United of Manchester in the second round of the FA Cup. Which did not prove to be a wise decision.
This was our favourite penalty miss of the 2010-11 season. Not only did it happen in the final minute, but it also meant that the Albion were held to a 1-1 Withdean draw against a side from the Evo-Stik Premier Division, giving us a lovely little Wednesday jaunt to Gigg Lane.
Sam Ashton was the hero of the hour in the FC United goal, guessing the right way and getting a firm hand onto Bennett’s spot kick to push it behind. The Albion went onto win the replay 11 days later 4-0 with Bennett banishing his demons by beating Ashton for the third goal.
5) Glenn Murray v Huddersfield Town (A), 11/12/2010
By the time December rolled around, Murray found himself back on spot kicks. Huddersfield Town away was another big game against a promotion rival and Murray had the opportunity to give Brighton the perfect start but his first half penalty was saved and held by Alex Smithies low down to his left.
Murray made up for that miss when he poked the Albion into the lead shortly after the break but Lee Clark’s Terriers came back to win 2-1. Jordan Rhodes equalised within minutes of Murray’s opener, setting the stage for Jamie McCombe to head home a 83rd minute winner.
Still, it was an improvement on the previous season’s trip to the Galpharm Stadium when Brighton had lost 7-1 against Huddersfield.
6) Ashley Barnes v Brentford (A), 08/03/11
Brentford away used to be a game to strike fear into the hearts of even the most optimistic of Brighton fans. The Albion never scored a goal at Griffin Park, let alone came away with any points.
Before Tuesday 8th March 2011, the Albion’s four previous visits had ended Brentford 0-0 Brighton, Brentford 1-0 Brighton, Brentford 4-0 Brighton, Brentford 4-0 Brighton and Brentford 2-0 Brighton. Ouch.
So when Brighton were awarded a second half penalty with the score at 0-0, it was the perfect opportunity to end that barren run. Barnes stepped up and had every right to be confident given he was the only attacking player in the Albion squad who was yet to cock up from the spot seven months into the season.
No prizes for guessing what happened next. Barnes attempted a three-step run up which Richard Lee read perfectly to palm away. No matter, Inigo Calderon had followed up – as any player would after seeing five previous penalty attempts missed – and had the whole goal to place the rebound into, albeit from a tight angle.
To compound the misery of Barnes’ miss, Calderon then managed to defy the laws of geometry by clearing both the crossbar and the roof of the stand from a matter of yards out.
Thankfully, it did not matter. An own goal even more comical than Calderon’s follow up attempt from the Bees’ Karleigh Osborne 15 minutes from time gave the Albion a 1-0 win.
7) Gary Dicker v Swindon Town (H), 26/03/11
With all his strikers and wingers on the list of Brighton missed penalties takers, Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named decided to give a midfielder a go at taking spot kicks as the business end of the season arrived.
Gary Dicker was the lucky man and his first chance to prove his worth from the spot came when Swindon Town came to Withdean towards the end of March.
12 minutes had elapsed when Craig Noone was brought to ground by Andy Frampton and Dicker confidently despatched the penalty past David Lucas.
David Prutton levelled things up before the hapless Frampton managed to give away a second penalty, this time for a foul on Murray. Dicker had another go but this time his effort was kept out by Lucas.
Again, it mattered not. Murray scored his 19th of the campaign in the 64th minute to give Brighton a 2-1 win, equalling the club’s post-war record of seven successive victories set in 1956.
The Albion would go onto set a new benchmark when winning 1-0 at Dagenham & Redbridge three days later to make it eight wins out of eight in Mad March and put one hand on the League One title.
8) Ashley Barnes v Huddersfield Town (H), 30/04/11
Given the spot kick shambles that had taken place in the 2010-11 season, it was extremely apt that Brighton marked their final home game of the campaign and the last ever match at Withdean with another one for the missed penalties collection.
Barnes was back on taking duty but his low kick was repelled by Bennett. Barnes reacted quickest of anyone though and for the first (and only) time, the Albion actually managed to score the rebound as the striker put a diving header into the opposite corner of the Huddersfield goal.
That cancelled out Benik Afobe’s first half opener. Afobe would put Huddersfield 2-1 ahead just past the hour mark, only for Sparrow to equalise again. It looked like 2-2 would be how it finished until Danny Ward’s 90th minute winner gave the Terriers all three points.
Not that anybody with Brighton connections was bothered. The Albion were presented with the League One trophy after the final whistle, the culmination of one of the best seasons that we will ever enjoy as Brighton fans – and all achieved with eight missed penalties along the way.
