Margins
On Penalties book cover
On Penalties
2000
First Published
3.18
Average Rating
156
Number of Pages

'Score and few will remember; miss and no one will forget' Talking to some of the game's most successful players and managers, the question the book seeks to address is simple: can England overcome their fear of the penalty? The penalty shoot-out is the greatest set piece of sporting drama ever conceived. Cruel, arbitrary, tortuous and unfair, it has also presented the England football team with a new and infinitely more punishing manner in which to lose. Three times in the past decade the nation has sat on the edge of its collective sofa and watched the seemingly inevitable unfold as Stuart Pearce, Chris Waddle, Gareth Southgate, Paul Ince and David Batty have selected the wrong shots in the lottery of international championship shoot-outs. Except it's not a lottery. There is an art to scoring penalties, which calls upon a unique combination of physical prowess and psychological strength. In the corridor of truth that leads from the penalty spot to the goal-line, a succession of English footballers have had to confront not only the opposing goalkeeper but the hopes and dreams of fans and fellow countrymen and, of course, themselves. 'A tour de force of narrative journalism' Observer

Avg Rating
3.18
Number of Ratings
17
5 STARS
12%
4 STARS
18%
3 STARS
53%
2 STARS
12%
1 STARS
6%
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Author

Andrew Anthony
Author · 3 books
Andrew Anthony is a journalist who has written for The Guardian since 1990, and The Observer. He is also the author of On Penalties (2000) and The Fall-Out (2007).
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