Every week penalty kicks provide drama in football matches and last Saturday two games in England witnessed contrasting fortunes in the art of taking spot kicks.
In the Premier League, Bournemouth somehow contrived to miss two first-half penalties, but still went on to beat West Ham 3-2. One of the penalty culprits, Joshua King, redeemed himself by scoring a hat-trick for the Cherries.
While that was going on, another Josh was making his presence felt in quite a different way in the League One match between Gillingham and Scunthorpe at Priestfield Stadium. After 77 minutes, visitors Scunthorpe were leading 2-0 and looked to be coasting to a comfortable victory.
Then the home side were awarded a penalty and Josh White stepped up to take it. The scoreline went as follows: 1-2 J White (77 pen), 2-2 J White (82 pen), 3-2 J White (86 pen).
In the space of nine minutes, White had hit a penalty hat-trick to give his struggling team a much needed victory. Most of the 6,000 crowd understandably went ballistic. Supporters of the Iron could only weep.
The referee, who immediately became very popular amongst Gills fans, didn't totally get into the spirit of things however, when he gave White a yellow card for "over-celebrating" his third goal.
There are various ways of taking penalties of course, although it generally comes down to two choices -- place it or blast it. For penalty kick aficionados, White put the first spot kick in the right-hand corner and the next two in the left.
It is of course rare to see three penalties awarded in a game, let alone within nine minutes. But stranger things have happened. Back in 1924 in a Third Division North match between Crewe and Bradford Park Avenue, four penalties were awarded in just five minutes.
But perhaps the outstanding match featuring penalties occurred in the 1989 game between Crystal Palace and Brighton in the old Division Two. A total of five penalties were awarded in the space of 27 minutes. Palace were awarded four spot kicks but only scored from one, while Brighton converted their sole effort. Despite the misses Palace went on to win 2-1.
Despite Bournemouth's misses last weekend, the success rate of scoring from penalties in the top flight is quite high. Since the Premier League started in 1992, a total of 84.35% penalties taken have been successful, while 11.83% have been saved by goalkeepers, with the remaining 3.82% missing the target.
Even so, taking a penalty is a nerve-wracking experience for even the most hardened of footballers. The problem is that the fans expect them to score and if they don't it can be quite devastating for a player's confidence. The only more humiliating experience is scoring an own goal.
The good thing is that no one is immune from cocking things up. Even goal-scoring machines like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been known to miss spot kicks.
Over the years, in the Premier League the three most reliable penalty takers, with more than a 90% success rate, have been Matthew Le Tissier, Thierry Henry and Peter Beardsley. Three players who took regular penalties with the worst record of less than 70% success are Michael Owen, Teddy Sheringham and Wayne Rooney.
Southampton's Le Tissier scored an amazing 48 out of 49 penalties during his career, mainly in the Premier League. The only spot kick he missed was saved by Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Mark Crossley in 1993.
In one interview about his technique, Le Tissier said: "I always aim for the corners. I never make eye contact with the keeper."
Someone else who knew how to score from the spot was Francis Lee who netted 13 penalties for Manchester City in the 1971-72 season.
Eric Cantona converted 14 of his 16 penalties for Manchester United primarily by sending the goalkeeper the wrong way and stroking the ball into the opposite corner. Alan Shearer had a very different style, blasting the ball into the net, and it usually worked.
Some penalty misses are remembered more than others and can have a traumatic effect on the player concerned. Gary McCallister had all the eyes of Scotland on him when he strode up to take a vital spot kick against England in Euro 1996. It was saved by David Seaman and McCallister was inconsolable.
The distraught Scot confessed after the game: "I know there are more important things in life than football, but if you cut me open and had a look inside it wouldn't be a pretty sight. I don't know if I can sink any lower."
Then there was the ever dependable Stuart Pearce missing the penalty that contributed to England's World Cup semi-final exit against Germany in 1990.
Current England manager, Gareth Southgate is another former player remembered more for his miss in a penalty shoot-out against Germany in Euro 1996, than his steady defending throughout his career.
Southgate once commented: "I'm sure people will always say 'he's the idiot who missed that penalty.'" Perhaps he should have taken the advice of his mum, Barbara, who scolded him after the game with: "Why didn't you just belt it?"
We must spare a thought for Argentina's Martin Palermo, who missed three penalties in his team's 5-0 loss to Colombia in the 1999 Copa America. To his credit three days later he scored in a 2-0 win over Uruguay.
It was Pele who once said: "A penalty is a cowardly way to score." However the great Brazilian star might have had a change of mind when he notched his 1,000th goal, which just happened be from the penalty spot.