Spot on: Ollie Watkins scores his penalty

Ollie Watkins has revealed the thinking behind his unusual penalty technique which came up trumps at Birmingham City last night.

When Brentford were awarded a spot kick with 16 minutes left at St Andrews, Watkins stepped up but faced Dan Bentley at the other end of pitch before turning and shooting at the last minute.

It paid off too as the ball crept past Brum keeper Tomasz Kuszczak and into the bottom corner, breaking the deadlock and paving the way for the Bees' 2-0 win.

“It was just so there's no mind games and the keeper can't try to get into my head,” Watkins told GetWestLondon . “I used to do that as my technique in the reserves at Exeter and it used to work, so I've carried it on here.

“That was my first penalty. I've always wanted to take them, but there has always been good penalty takers at Exeter, so I let them step up and take them. Neal (Maupay) wanted to take it, and Flo (Jozefzoon) wanted to take it too, but going into the game I was the set penalty taker.

“The gaffer just asked if I was confident taking penalties and I said yes I wanted to take them – he put faith in me and luckily I repaid him tonight. I think if I had been on the pitch when Yoann (Barbet) took his (against Norwich) I would have taken it.

“I practice them in training – a few of the lads do. I'm going to keep practicing them and make sure if I do get the opportunity to take more penalties in future I will do my best and keep putting them away.”

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