Harry Arter’s penalty miss may not have been as awful as it first seemed.
There are some penalty misses that stay with you forever. There are some men forever associated with penalty misses too.
Arter may just about avoid joining the likes of Chris Waddle, Gareth Southgate and Stuart Pearce in infamy by account of his miss coming in a fairly dull 0-0 draw between Southampton and Bournemouth. Most of those that were present at the game, last weekend, have probably forgotten the finer details already.
Arter will rue that miss – when he skied the ball over – for some time yet and it cost his side two valuable league points. He was the second away player to balloon a penalty over at that end of Southampton’s St Mary’s stadium, the other being Tottenham’s Harry Kane.
Following the Cherries’ draw, the Republic of Ireland midfielder remarked that any players called Harry should opt against taking a spot-kick at St Mary’s next time.
However, it seems there may have been something other than dodgy serendipity at play when both Harry Arter and Kane sent their respective penalties into orbit. As photographic evidence will prove [below] the ground around the penalty spot gave way on both occasions, causing both men to lose balance.
Southampton, last night, replaced that area of turf for their home tie with Crystal Palace.
That patch of the Saints’ box had some freshly minted/grown grass but there were no spot-kicks awarded to test whether or not it held up.
