Coventry City goalkeeper Ben Wilson has disclosed the extensive preparations made by the club for last season’s Championship play-off final. To ready him for the possibility of a penalty shootout, the goalkeeper coach, Aled Williams, enlisted the assistance of a “penalty psychologist” before the decisive match at Wembley Stadium.
Wilson, the Sky Blues’ top goalkeeper, entered the game with an impressive 22 clean sheets for the season, and coach Aled Williams was determined to equip him and the team with every available resource to maximize their chances in case the match against Luton Town came down to penalties. In the end, both teams executed perfect penalties in the initial ten kicks, leading to sudden death, during which Luton secured their promotion to the Premier League by scoring one more penalty, as Fankaty Dabo missed his.
During an appearance on the Fozcast – The Ben Foster Podcast, the 31-year-old Coventry City star explained, “We conducted thorough research, and we even brought in a penalty specialist to assist us.”
When asked to elaborate, he continued, “This specialist previously worked with Sheffield United a few years ago when either Aaron Ramsdale or Dean Henderson was their goalkeeper. Our goalkeeping coach got in touch with him, and although I didn’t meet him in person, he provided us with all the necessary information. He explained the percentages and predicted the direction penalty takers were likely to go, taking into account various factors such as pressure and timing within the game.”
“We reviewed this information on the day before the game, even involving our young goalkeepers, Cian Tyler and Tom Billson. We all had to predict which way we thought the penalty takers would go. There were variations in our predictions, but we tried to align our expectations. I remember initially questioning the effectiveness of this approach and the significance of percentages. However, because it had proven successful, we started to place our trust in it.”
Ben Foster, the podcast host, recalled a match from the previous season when Everton’s Jordan Pickford had the names of potential penalty takers and information about their preferred directions written on his water bottle during a game against Leicester. This helped Pickford anticipate James Maddison’s penalty down the middle, and Foster expressed his surprise at such a tactic, stating that he had never stood up in the middle of the goal for a penalty before.
Wilson chimed in, “In our semi-final, there was a Middlesbrough player who usually aimed for the middle, and the advice was for me to stand up and react to the ball if he took a penalty during the game. I thought it would be challenging because if he side-footed it into the bottom corner, I’d have no chance.”