Tav: My score rate is no fluke

“Some penalty takers look at the keeper but I’ve never really ventured into that scene.

“I don’t really look at anyone else, I just know it’s my job at Rangers to put the ball in the back of the net.

“I can look into the backgrounds of the keepers – like where they’ve gone for previous penalt ies. I have al l that information.

“I practise all the time with Colin and the other keepers.

“We know that a clean strike more or less beats the keeper.

“So I just keep practising that. If I get a clean strike with a lot of power behind it, the majority of times the ball will go in.

“The keepers have a lot of info on us so it’s like a game of chess.

“You’re trying to out- guess each other on where to go.

“But as long as I get it in the

McDermott

place I want it will be out of the goalie’s reach.”

At just 23, Tavernier stepped up at Wembley in a tense League One play- off final shoot- out for Rotherham United.

His penalty helped the Millers reach the Championship.

He arrived at Rangers a year later and, after becoming the designated penalty taker, he has seen off plenty of contenders trying to take his crown.

Incredibly, Tavernier is so meticulous in his preparation that he claims to know where he’s going to put his next one – two DAYS before he hits it.

He said: “When I first came up here, Martyn Waghorn and Kenny Miller were taking the pens before I decided to push myself to the front of the queue and get on them.

“So I could actually have scored a lot more by now.

“I’ve always felt comfortable taking them but I didn’t have the technique I have now at the start.

“For myself, it’s a lot about technique. I’ve taken a lot of them now and you do get a little bit nervous. But it’s generally down to technique.

“If that is spot on you’re normally putting the ball where you want it to go.

“As long as I know what spot I’m going for – and I’ll know the day or a couple of days before – I just need to execute it.

“You get lads coming in, usually strikers. But with a good record I can put them to one side and keep them off my back.

“To continue to do that I need to keep putting them away.

“If I hadn’t scored the second one against Hearts recently after missing the first, I’d have lads