FOOTBALL fans spotted Jordan Pickford’s “penalty cheat sheet” on his water bottle before he saved James Maddison’s spot-kick.
Leicester were given a golden chance to move into a 3-1 lead against Everton before half-time on Monday night when Michael Keane blocked Harvey Barnes’ cross with his arm.
Maddison stepped up to face England team-mate Pickford from 12 yards.
But his effort straight down the middle was parried away by the Three Lions No1.
And it proved crucial in a thrilling relegation battle as Alex Iwobi equalised shortly after half-time to earn the away side a point in a 2-2 draw.
Fans were quick to point out afterwards that Pickford had his trusty water bottle with the penalty information written on it.
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He had data for Maddison, Youri Tielemans and Jamie Vardy on the bottle.
The info on Maddison stated: “STAY CENTRE,” and showed 60% of the midfielder’s penalties go down the middle of the goal, with 20% left and 20% right.
Commenting on it at full-time, Pickford told Sky Sports: “Madders, he needs to learn his lesson! He doesn’t play poker by the sounds of it.
“Nah, to be fair, I do my homework. I called it this morning which way I was going to go.
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“He expects me to dive so I’ve double bluffed him and got one up on him.”
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The ex-Sunderland man, 29, had similar data on his bottle when Everton faced Liverpool back in February.
And prior to that he used the trick during England’s 2018 World Cup shoot-out against Colombia and the Euro 2020 final against Italy.
Joking about the Sky Sports cameras picking up the water bottle, Pickford added: “The cameraman was good tonight.
“We are both fighting, we are both down there, there’s probably a bit of anxiety and pressure on both teams.
“But it was a good game to watch, we created a lot of chances, their keeper made a lot of saves.
“We know we’re still in the bottom three.
“It’s a point but we’re not coming away with zero points. We need to roll our sleeves up and keep working hard together.”
Reacting on social media, one person said: “Love this. Pickford does his homework and is brave enough to stand up and not dive to one side or the other.
“And to everyone saying it’s an awful pen, if Pickford dives either way and he drills it down the middle then yes we would be saying it’s a great pen. It’s a top save 🙌🏽.”
Another added: “Decent information. Clear, simple, effective.”
A third replied: “That’s why you do your homework 😂.”
And a fourth responded: “That’s really clever s***housery. Will get inside takers’ heads.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
