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Maidstone United to start penalty practice after missing seven out of eight spot-kicks this season

Hakan Hayrettin says Maidstone will start practising penalties after blowing another two at Chelmsford.

Scott Rendell fired wide and Justin Amaluzor’s effort was saved by Lee Worgan as United missed twice in the last 10 minutes of their 1-0 defeat.

Scott Rendell's penalty goes wide of Lee Worgan's goal Picture: Steve Terrell
Scott Rendell's penalty goes wide of Lee Worgan's goal Picture: Steve Terrell

The Stones have wasted their last four penalties awarded in normal time - Amaluzor hitting the post at Havant and Rendell denied in the FA Cup at Wimborne, a tie they eventually lost on spot-kicks.

Throw in that shoot-out and it’s seven out of eight missed.

Manager Hayrettin said: “I don’t know what we’re going to do about it - maybe I’ll have to put my boots on.

“We have to sit down and have a look at it and start practising penalties, I think. We’ve not really practised.

“We’ve talked about what you need to do but if you miss two penalties, you don’t deserve to win.

“These penalty misses are killing us.

“The good thing is we’re getting in the box and creating chances if people are giving away penalties, so we must be doing something right.

“I didn’t think Chelmsford were particularly good but they battled hard and they got what they deserved in the end - three points - because we didn’t take our chances.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before, missing two penalties in the last 10 minutes.”

Chelmsford showed how it’s done with Adam Morgan converting a second-half spot-kick as Maidstone suffered their National South defeat.

Former Maidstone keeper Lee Worgan saves Justin Amaluzor's penalty Picture: Steve Terrell
Former Maidstone keeper Lee Worgan saves Justin Amaluzor's penalty Picture: Steve Terrell

Hayrettin, though, was adamant the penalty shouldn’t have been awarded against captain George Elokobi.

He said: “I’ve got to be careful what I say but it’s never a penalty.

“But he’s given it and they score and that’s the difference.

“We win together and we lose together but I sometimes wonder what these officials see. He’s gone down before he’s even touched him.

“He’s actually played the ball outside our left-back, so he’s not actually going towards our goal.

“Why would we want to bring him down when he’s not actually turned and faced our goal? It doesn’t make sense.”

Hayrettin was happy enough with the overall performance despite Maidstone losing their unbeaten record after two wins and a draw.

He added: “It was a good performance but moments change games and we’ve missed the first penalty and that was a blow.

“Missing the second one took the wind out of us but fair play to the boys and credit to them, they kept on going and tried to do the right things.

“We weathered the storm first half but we need to do a bit better than that to win these games and to push up where we should be.”

Read more: The latest sports news in Kent

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