Southampton manager Russell Martin has revealed that he’s had his players practicing their penalty taking skills in the instance that either the play-off semi-final or perhaps even the final goes to a shootout.
The Saints travel to the Hawthorns to face West Bromwich Albion on Sunday for the first of the two semi-final legs and will fancy their chances off of the back of beating Leeds United on the final day of the season.
That win against Leeds, who face Norwich City in the play-offs, has potentially seen Martin’s side become the favourites for promotion. Nonetheless, the players cannot be complacent facing a tough Baggies side who will be looking to prevent them from gaining an immediate promotion back to the Premier League.
Southampton have known that they’ll be partaking in the play-offs for a number of weeks. They couldn’t quite muster up a serious challenge for automatic promotion, nor were they in a scrap to gain a position for the post-season.
As a result, they’ve had plenty of time to prepare, which could serve them very well in due course. It’s a potential early advantage that the Saints have got over their opposition, but they must still translate that advantage onto the pitch.
Speaking to the Daily Echo, Martin stated that his players have already been practicing their penalties if they are called upon in the post-season.
“Yeah, I think it’s come into the training for a while now.
“I think we’ve been thinking about it, the players are aware of it, we will practice it, and hope it doesn’t come to that.”
The manager also insisted that his side will be aggressive in the first leg, looking to get the win and be on the attack early.
“I think we’re going there to try and win, and be the team we want to be.
“The second leg will be influenced by what happens on Sunday but it won’t be if you’re losing, you need to go gung ho or if you’re winning, defend it.
“We’ve done something for 46 games in a league that’s got us 87 points, so it’s been pretty good on the whole, there’s been some frustration in there.
“The first and second game, regardless of scoreline, regardless of the situation, regardless of where we’re playing, the challenge will always be to be us, and hopefully we can do that.”
Writer’s View
The extra penalty practice that the players have had could be the difference between winning and losing a shootout if it was to come to that at any point in the post-season. Martin has emphasised he doesn’t want that to be the case, but will still have his players prepared.
Although the club may have not achieved their goal of automatic promotion, they still have a great chance of an immediate return to the Premier League and the win over Leeds last week strengthens their case.
It’s important for them to not take their foot off the gas in the first leg as like we’ve already seen in the other EFL play-offs, anything can happen.
