‘Naivety’ helped Ross County player approach penalty shoot-out
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George Harmon admitted an element of naivety may have helped him going into Ross County’s penalty shoot-out against Partick Thistle last weekend.
The left-sided defender was the Staggies’ fifth taker, and had to score to keep his side in the tie and send the shoot-out to sudden death.
He made no mistake, but he admitted afterwards that the whole situation was completely new to him – and that possibly helped him not overthink the kick.
Having successfully come through such a dramatic contest, though, he believes that both himself and County as a team will be stronger for the experience going forward.
“That was my first professional penalty, so I think that naivety of not having that experience probably helped,” Harmon pondered.
“I picked my spot and thankfully I slotted it away.
“When I saw it going in I was relieved to be honest. Jack Baldwin had missed so the pressure was ramped up on me.
“I didn’t realise what it meant at the time to be honest.
“The goalies had told us what they like and don’t like when facing a penalty so I took that on board.
“All you have to do is beat the keeper and it doesn’t matter how it goes in.
“I would take another one, but hopefully not in the play-offs.
“As a team we can enjoy this moment, but looking back we shouldn’t have been in this position with the quality we have. Next season we need to kick on up the league.
“Will we be stronger after this? I think so. We had a big summer last year with a lot of players coming in. This was my first year as a pro, and I’ll learn from that.”
