OWAIN’S FURY AT NEW RULES
HAMILTON..0QUEEN’SPK..0
QUEEN’S PARK WIN 6-5 ON PENS
OWAIN FON WILLIAMS believes the new FIFA rules governing penalty kicks will make it almost impossible for keepers to save them again.
The 32-year-old thought he was a shootout hero as Hamilton and Queen’s Park fought out a goalless bore in Lanarkshire.
Williams saved Alfredo Agyeman’s initial spot-kick which should have handed the match to Accies 5-4.
But he was stunned when ref Nick Walsh ordered a retake and booked the No.1 for encroachment and moving off his line.
To make matters worse Agyeman then scored only for Accies skipper Darian Mackinnon to spurn his chance and Queen’s Thomas Block rolled in his kick as Mark Roberts’ side snatched the bonus point.
Fon Williams cut a frustrated figure as he revealed he had watched Shelley Kerr’s Scotland team crash out of the World Cup in similar circumstances and he branded Accies loss a “kick in the teeth”.
He said: “It’s a frustrating rule. It is hard to save a penalty at the best of time and it’s a kind of impossible task for a goalkeeper now. How can you save a ball when you have to stand still?
“Goalkeepers have no chance of saving penalties now if that is going to be the case. Anyway it doesn’t really matter as the rules are the rules.
“I just find it a little bit disappointing the referee booked me for it as that is a double whammy.
“What happened with the Agyeman penalty was that he stuttered before striking the ball.
“I was anticipating the player’s shot and he has stuttered and I was holding myself but my weight was pulling me off my line and forward. That is what kind of happened with that.
“It is all right everybody looking at what the goalkeeper does but we also have to look at what the penalty taker does in these instances too.
“I watched Scotland Women’s World Cup get hard done by too. It is a right kick in the teeth.
“I don’t want to get into the morals of it all anymore and there is no point on dwelling on it. You cannot win but rules are rules and it is what it is.”