Mr Messi, you stole my trick
penalty we would do it. We had rehearsed it.
“We did exactly what happened with Messi and Suarez. Mike knew what I was going to do. As I went to the ball I just tapped it sideways.
“I knew the rule. You cannot touch the ball twice. I couldn’t touch it forward and then hit it myself, but I could push it forward and a colleague could shoot.” Douglas, now 81, and Ferguson combined to good effect – succeeding where Robert Pires and Thierry Henry famously failed when trying a similar trick for Arsenal against Manchester City in 2005.
And while Douglas maintains that Messi and Suarez were not displaying a lack of respect to Celta Vigo, who trailed 3- 1 at the Nou Camp at the time and went on to lose 6- 1, he vividly remembers the trouble his own double act prompted.
“Luckily we scored as well but Jack Marshall,
the manager, played bloody hell with afterwards,” he recalled.
“We didn’t tell anyone what we were going to do and he took the view we were taking the p***.
“Fred played hell with us as well! Sadly, he died recently but he was a great goalkeeper. He had played for Preston with Tom Finney and all them, but then he joined us at Blackburn before fi nishing at Barrow. He was a terrifi c keeper.
“People said we had taken the mickey but I think we were 3- 0 up at the time.
“I don’t think Messi would have done it if Barcelona were 1- 0 up or 2- 0 up, but it is something different and everyone is talking about it. It is not disrespectful. Crikey, Messi is the top dog isn’t he?”
Cruyff was playing for Ajax against Helmond Sport in 1982 when he squared the ball from the spot for team- mate Jesper Olsen, who then passed it back to him to score. He played for Barcelona from 1973 to 1978.
And when Plymouth beat Manchester City 3- 2 in a Division Two game in 1964, the winner came from Trebilcock, after Johnny Newman tapped his penalty sideways, enabling his team- mate to race in and fi re home.
Today, Douglas will be back at his old stamping ground for a presentation, at which he will have a bus named in his honour. And he has a word of advice for the Class of 2016 if they are awarded a penalty against Fulham tonight –
or in Sunday’s FA Cup tie with West Ham.
“It’s not all right doing that if
you miss,”
he said.
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