Taylor ‘devastated’ after penalty miss!

It’s the cruellest of ironies; just 18 months ago Matt Taylor stepped up to take the penalty that knocked the Clarets out of the Carling Cup.
Matt Taylor misses from the penalty spot against Leicester City  who scored the only goal of the game 60 seconds laterMatt Taylor misses from the penalty spot against Leicester City  who scored the only goal of the game 60 seconds later
Matt Taylor misses from the penalty spot against Leicester City  who scored the only goal of the game 60 seconds later

On that occasion, wearing the white of West Ham’s away strip, the midfielder beat Tom Heaton in front of the Cricket Field Stand to notch his last career goal.

On Saturday, however, facing Leicester City’s Kasper Schmeichel at the opposite end of the pitch, in only his third start in eight months following an achilles injury, the 33-year-old slammed his spot kick against the upright as Burnley’s hopes of Premier League survival diminished.

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Taylor, who had scored seven of his eight top tier penalties before his latest failure, blazing over the bar from 12 yards for Bolton in a 4-2 defeat against Aston Villa in December 2008, said:

“I was happy to stand up. I had enough confidence in my ability but I have just looked at it again and somehow my standing foot slipped as I hit it and it’s gone the wrong side of the post.

“But sometimes you’ve got to be big enough to stand up and take them and when you don’t score be big enough to take the criticism. I am big enough, old enough and ugly enough to accept responsibility.”

He added: “Ironically it was a good penalty but my foot slipped. But that’s the way it went. I would be happy to step up again and the day I don’t have that feeling will be the day I need to quit the game because I back myself to the hilt.

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“I know I have the correct ability to take penalties. Just today my foot slipped and there’s nothing you can do about that.

“I said to Ingsy ‘do you want it? I am happy to take it and he said ‘fine’. There was a slight discussion and if he had said he wanted it, no problem.

“But I felt confident in my ability to put it away and the most important thing is that the keeper went the wrong way as well.”

Turf Moor descended in to a stunned silence - aside from the thousands of jubilant Foxes fans - but nothing prepared the majority for what happened 59 seconds later.

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From Schmeichel’s goal kick, Vardy netted the simplest goal of his career once Heaton had made an exceptional save to claw the ball off the line after Michael Duff diverted Marc Albrighton’s delivery goalwards.

Football is a cruel game and unfortunately today we came off on the wrong end of it,” Taylor said.

“That’s football and it changes so quickly. The highs are fantastic but the lows are very low as well.

“Obviously I’m devastated but the only way I can affect it now is to go and put in a performance for the team.”