Exclusive: Don Goodman names the 3 EFL Championship players he’d trust most to take a last-minute penalty | OneFootball

The Sky Sports pundit has revealed which three players he’d put his trust in to convert from 12 yards.

Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman has revealed he would trust ex-Championship strikers Ivan Toney, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Billy Sharp the most to convert a last-minute penalty.

There have been so many times throughout the years in the Championship where big players have had to convert from 12 yards out in crucial games, with scoring or missing so fatal to the way a side’s season plays out.

Iconic moments in the second-tier from penalty kicks involve Anthony Knockeart’s gut-wrenching miss for Leicester City in the play-off semi-final to Watford in 2013, with the Hornets subsequently breaking away on the counter-attack and blasting themselves into the final with a thumping strike by Troy Deeney.

Another includes the play-off final back in 2017 between Huddersfield Town and Reading, as the Terriers clinched promotion back to the Premier League for the first time in 45 years by prevailing 4-3 in a penalty shootout.

For any side in the second-tier, having a reliable player from the spot is so important to adding more goals to a team, with regular conversions crucial to ticking along and picking up more points throughout a campaign.

There have been some fabulous penalty takers through the years in the Championship with exceptional conversion rates, and Don Goodman has spoken to FLW about the players he would trust the most to put the ball in the back of the net from 12 yards.

Don Goodman backs Ivan Toney, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Billy Sharp the most to convert a penalty

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman said he would trust Ivan Toney, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Billy Sharp the most to hit the back of the net when given a spot kick, with the trio all having magnificent conversion rates.

Goodman said: “I’d say there’s one absolute obvious answer in Ivan Toney. I have watched him take so many penalties on meaningful, big occasions, and the calmness and composure is there for all to see.

“Of the others, it’s not an easy question, but thinking logically about it, I want strikers to take the penalties for me, so I would probably go along the lines of Aleksandar Mitrovic, again, a high conversion rate.

“And the likes of Billy Sharp or Teemu Pukki, but those are the obvious ones in recent times have got a really high conversion rate that I can recall. I might be missing some, but those are the ones off the top of my head that I can remember.”

Ivan Toney will go down as one of the best penalty takers to grace the Championship

When looking back at who Don Goodman listed, he’s right to put Ivan Toney at the very top of the list.

Toney is regarded as one of the best penalty takers in world football, and he showcased his quality from 12 yards out in the Championship, scoring all nine of the spot kicks he had to take in the second-tier while at Brentford.

As far as Alexsandar Mitrovic is concerned, his goalscoring record in the Championship was freakish, breaking the record of Guy Whittingham by scoring 43 goals in 46 second-tier games in the 2021-22 term.

It goes without saying that his penalty record was excellent too, scoring 10 out of a possible 12 penalties that he stepped up to take in the division, with the Serbian international proving to be very reliable when called upon.

With the majority of Billy Sharp’s career coming in the Championship, he took more penalties than the other names mentioned, with 23 in total.

Yet again, the former Sheffield United man normally knew where the back of the net was just like in open play, netting 17 of them.

However, Teemu Pukki’s penalty record while at Norwich City in the Championship was far from ideal, converting just five of the nine penalties he took while with the Canaries, with it just going to show that not all strikers are confident of converting from just 12 yards out.