PENALTY kick specialist Matt Le Tissier has missed TWO penalties in the same game for the first time in his life.
The 52-year-old lost his hot-dog reputation from 12 yards to a burger van man in a Dorset village charity match in Gillingham.
And the Southampton legend, who holds the Premier League record of netting 23 spot-kicks in a row, didn’t even get a free burger afterwards from the goalkeeper who is an avid Saints fan!
Le Tissier missed just ONE of his 47 penalties during his 16-year career with the Saints where he scored 209 goals in 540 games.
Liverpool’s Mo Salah moved to within nine of Le Tissier’s 21-year record when he notched his 14th successive Premier League penalty in last week’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea.
But days before Salah hit the headlines Le Tissier, nicknamed Le God by worshipping Saints fans, suffered his worst nightmare.
The former England midfielder revealed: “I can’t believe I missed two penalties in the same game and that’s a first for sure.
“You will never guess we went to this little village where David Hughes came from for a charity match to help raise money for some floodlights.
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“The opposition goalkeeper came up to me before the game and said: ‘Matt, I’m a massive Saints fan and that’s my burger fan over there and would you do me a favour and have a picture in front of it afterwards.’
“I said to him: ‘No problem mate, that’s fine’ and 15 to 20 minutes into the game we are given a penalty.
“I’m thinking he’s a big Saints fan so don’t take the p*** so I didn’t hit it as hard as I would normally do and he went the right way and saved it.
“Then about five minutes later we get a free-kick from around 25 yards out and I thought: ‘I’m not going to give him a chance here’ and I whipped it around the corner and straight in.
“Then we get another penalty in the second half and I step up and try to do a silly run-up, dinked it and he tipped it over the bar.
“The lad was very chuffed and he got his picture of me after the game. But I was gutted, the van was shut and I didn’t get a burger.”
Le Tissier’s only spot-kick blunder arrived during the inaugural Premier League season in March 1993 when he missed one against Nottingham Forest at The Dell.
The player recalls with a smile: “Mark Crossley is still dining out on that save, I couldn’t wish for a nicer lad to save my penalty!”
Guernsey’s greatest football son is deeply proud of his spot-kick heroics and is very much opposed to all the silly stuff that goes on nowadays by many a penalty taker in their run-ups.
Le Tissier observed: “I like the way Mo Salah takes his time with his penalties. I’m not a fan of these silly run-ups even though I tried it in that charity game just for fun.
“Salah is very positive and is firm with his penalties and 14 in a row is a very good achievement.
“I am incredibly proud of my record of taking 48 penalties but even now all people ever want to talk about is the one I missed!”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
