March 3 2005

Andy Johnson

Andrew Johnson admitted this week that the memory of his Worthington Cup final penalty shoot-out miss while playing for Birmingham City has been the factor behind his impressive penalty haul this season, by Stuart Pink.

Johnson missed the vital spot kick which secured Liverpool the trophy after first division Birmingham took the Anfield side to a penalty shoot-out in the 2001 final.

But AJ revealed that the agony he went through as a youngster at the Millennium Stadium has inspired him to become the top penalty taker in the country, after notching his seventh and eighth spot-kick of the season against his old club on Saturday.

Johnson said: "It's definitely made me more determined and it made me a stronger person missing in front of 78,000, up at the Liverpool end as well.

"I think once you've taken a penalty there and missed, that's probably the worst of the worst, so if you miss in a normal game, it's obviously as important but it's not as heartbreaking as it was then."

The 23-year-old striker has a dedicated penalty practice regime which he performs the day before a match, where he takes around 20 penalties in training to decide where to place them if the opportunity arises during the game the next day.

Iain Dowie, a spot-kick taker in his time as a player, praised his star striker's mental toughness in dealing with penalties and even compared him with arguably the best penalty taker in recent years.

Iain Dowie said: "He's had a few good penalties, he practices a lot, five or six times, even in the warm-up he hits the ball with unbelievable power.

"He can go both ways, but until you get in that situation and I've missed a very important one for Luton, and I've scored goals at international level through penalties, it is different.

"But AJ is a lot better, I've only seen one person who had no fear of penalties and that's Matt Le Tissier."

Johnson's impressive penalty strike rate has bizarrely led to slurs taken at his overall goal record this season, with some critics hinting that his 18 Premiership goals doesn't quite tell the full story behind his success at this level.

Johnson said: "At the end of the day it's my duty, I've scored 10 goals and I've scored eight by penalties, it could have been 10 penalties and 10 goals because I've missed two.

"But if you get awarded a penalty you're not going to say I'm not going to take it because people say I've scored too many penalties'.

"Seven of them I've got myself, I've been brought down near enough one-on-one with the keeper so if I hadn't have been brought down there would have been a chance I'd have scored anyway."

The England international is now just one goal short of Arsenal striker Theirry Henry in the race for the Premiership Golden Boot, but the modest striker insists it falls well down in his main priorities this campaign.

Johnson added: "I always keep an eye out if he scores, I think every striker does that, it's hard not to keep an eye out as it's in the papers week in week out, but I like to keep him in my sights, it's obviously one of my targets and I've got to set myself high standards otherwise I won't improve.

"But I just want to get my head down and work hard. Our priority is keeping Palace up in the Premier league and we've got ourselves in a great position with 10 games to go, so it's down to us now that we've got to stay here. It's in our hands."

Live Croydon Guardian text commentary