Jay backs spot kick technique

HE may have threatened to give his manager a heart-attack with his penalty taking technique, but Matt Jay has no plans to change how he takes his spot kicks, writes Daniel Clark.

The Exeter City man scored the winner in Saturday’s 3-2 win over Bradford City from the spot, slotting home ten minutes from time.

His casual technique of walking up to the ball and waiting to see where the goalkeeper moves before rolling the ball home has seen him net three of his 13 goals from 12 yards - although even Jay had to admit his penalty against Bradford was closer that he would have liked.

Keeper Sam Hornby dived to his left but with Jay’s spot-kick going down the middle, the Bantams man got his boot to the softly taken penalty, but couldn’t keep it out, as Exeter came from behind to take the three points.

“No change, I will keep the technique,” Jay said, after the game, when asked about his penalty taking style.

“It was a bit closer than I would have liked, but that’s the technique and it has been working this year so far. Maybe I’ll pop it a bit further in the corner next time, but it was nice to get on the scoresheet and keep them totting up.

“It is a game of cat and mouse and the technique I am going with and will stick with it, and the goal went down on the sheet and that’s all that matters.”

Asked about Jay’s penalty taking style, Matt Taylor said: “MJ has to back his way and that’s his way of taking a penalty, but when the keeper stands there for as long as he did and gets a stud on it .... But it’s another goal for him and improves that tally. He has to keep backing his way and it makes you nervous, but it went in.”

City twice went behind, before goals from Pierce Sweeney, Ryan Bowman and then Jay’s late penalty gave them all the points, and following the 1-0 win at Stevenage on Tuesday, they have risen back into the play-off spots.

“Back-to-back wins is what we have been looking for a while and it rounds off a good week,” Jay said. “A good week is something we have needed for a little while and we just want to try and get another run together like we did at the start of the season.

“At home we have come up against a lot of blocks this year. Teams have come and sat back and that’s the hardest thing to break down to score, but we came through it and found a different way of scoring, and lovely moment of quality for Ryan’s goal and a set piece for the first.”

Ahead of the trip to Barrow on tomorrow night, Jay added: “We want to win every game but that will be tough, a long old trip, but we go up there with the same game plan and want to add to the two good wins and get another three points.”