Which Saint inspired Crossley Place? Matt Le Tissier
WHEN Mark Crossley received an email from the firm overseeing the regeneration of the site on which Southampton’s The Dell used to sit, he thought it must be a joke.
He said: “They asked if I’d mind if they named a road at the end I’d saved the penalty ‘Crossley Place’. I thought it was a wind-up, but they actually did it.
“Maybe I should have asked for a house.”
Ah, the penalty.
Crossley made some notable spot-kick saves during his career – three of them in a 1996 FA Cup fifth-round shoot-out between Nottingham Forest and Tottenham.
In the 1991 FA Cup Final between the same two clubs, he saved Gary Lineker’s penalty.
Notoriety
And he is one of only three goalkeepers – along with Dave Beasant and Petr Cech – to have made a penalty save in normal time of the competition’s showpiece tie.
Despite those feats, the one that really earned Crossley pub quiz notoriety, however, was the one he made on March 24, 1993.
Matt Le Tissier was as masterful a penalty taker as you can get.
But on that day
Forest keeper
Crossley blotted
Le Tiss’s copybook by denying him
– the only time the
Saints star missed from the spot in 48 efforts.
“I just got taught to trust my instincts,” said
Crossley. “And that’s the best advice you can give any keeper facing a penalty.
“That instinct when you’re standing there, in the seconds before the penalty is about to be taken.
“Later in my career, when we had access to all the ipads, computers and the like, I did look and try to study.
But did it make any difference?
Absolutely not.
I did it more to please the coaches
– that I was actually trying to do my research rather than just going off my instincts.
“With Matt, I just decided I was going to go off to my right-hand side, no matter what his run-up was like, and I knew that if I guessed the right way, I had a chance of saving it.
“Luckily, I guessed the right way a lot.
“As time went on I was looking at players taking penalties and body angles and run-ups, things like that.
“I ended up thinking that it’s a science that can’t really give results.
“Maybe I’m wrong, but if you put in your mind, ‘I’ve a chance of saving this penalty’, then that’s what gives you the best chance of doing it.”
Of course, getting into the mind of your opponent is a big help as well.
Crossley added: “The one thing I would always say is that you have to delay the penalty-taker for as long as possible.
“I saved quite a few at White Hart Lane in a penalty shoot-out, including one from Teddy Sheringham, my old Forest team-mate.
“I said to him, ‘Don’t forget, I’ve worked with you and I know where you put them’. So words can help psychologically, especially with players you’ve played with and got to know.
“All a penaltytaker wants to do is put the ball down and take it.
“So the more time to think, the more chance the goalkeeper has got.
Pressure
“As a goalkeeper, you’re in a no-lose situation – it’s the penalty-taker who is under immense pressure.
“But I’m honoured to have been the only goalkeeper to save a penalty of Matt’s.”
Le Tissier spoke to this newspaper last year about the art of taking penalties and was asked if he had any ill-feeling towards Crossley.
“Not in any way, shape or form,” Le Tissier said, laughing.
“In fact, if I could have chosen one goalkeeper to save my penalty, it would have been him.
“He’s a top bloke, a lovely fella and we have a good laugh about it.
“I keep reminding him I did take five against him, so I’m 4-1 up really.”