When football turned to penalties to end 'cruel' system
· Yahoo Sports
Martyn Kelly remembers wishing he had a stool to climb on like the rest of the kids in the ground to get a better view.
The world's first official penalty shootout was not something he wanted obscured by other people's heads.
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On a warm evening on 5 August 1970 at Boothferry Park in Hull, a star-studded Manchester United reached the end of extra time level at 1-1 with second-tier Hull City in a cup match.
Six weeks earlier, football's lawmakers had decided to end the days of the coin toss to decide winners in favour of five players from each team taking a kick from 11 yards out with just the keeper to beat.
"Blimey," thought then 11-year-old Hull City fan Kelly. "It's George Best, one of the greatest players ever. He's going to take the first penalty in the world's first penalty shootout."
That was something worth watching.
No-one knew yet that this new method of deciding a tied football match would become a nerve-shredding experience some fans, players and managers can barely watch.
Before this, cup or knockout matches that ended in draws were settled by replays, by drawing lots or tossing coins.
At the 1968 European Championship, Italy went through to the final after a correct heads-or-tails guess following a 0-0 draw against the Soviet Union. The final against Yugoslavia then ended 1-1 and Italy eventually won 2-0 two days later when the sides reconvened for a replay.
For those who were not fans of the existing ways to break a deadlock, the final straw came four months later.
When Israel's captain pulled a piece of paper saying 'no' out of a big sombrero hat that determined his side had lost their 1968 Olympic quarter-final to Bulgaria after a 1-1 draw, some within his country's footballing governing body were furious.
Israeli Football Association official Yosef Dagan said there must be a better way to decide these big moments – or at least one that was, theoretically, less to do with luck and more to do with skill.
Dagan and Michael Almog – who went on to become Israel FA chief - developed the idea of a penalty shootout before writing an official proposal to Fifa in 1969. It was published in the governing body's official magazine.
In the letter, Almog proposed "to stop this way of deciding the winner by drawing lots, an immoral and even cruel system for the losing team and not honourable for the winner".
He called for it to be replaced by a shootout of five penalties for each side. If the teams were still level after that then it would continue until one side missed and the other scored.
The suggestion was heavily debated before eventually being adopted by football's lawmakers, the International Football Association Board (Ifab), at its AGM in Inverness on 27 June 1970.
Aside from drawing lots, tossing coins and replays, there had been other ways over the years to settle draws, including sharing titles or counting corners, and there had also been versions of penalty shootouts at some domestic and minor competitions.
When BBC Sport asked Fifa to confirm whether the Watney Cup shootout was the first official penalty shootout, world football's governing body replied that is does not have "any records confirming or denying the claim".
The National Football Museum does, though, refer to it as the first shootout in England.
Various competitions, including the full rounds of the FA Cup until two seasons ago, still continued to use replays. It was not until 1990-91 that the FA Cup introduced penalties if teams were level after extra time in a replay.
After that Ifab decision in 1970, it was not long before the first opportunity came to see a penalty shootout being used to decide a professional football match.
Would the successor to the coin-toss be any less cruel?
That evening in Hull at the Watney Cup - a pre-season cup competition - would provide some answers.
"I couldn't believe it, my beloved Hull City were up against Georgie Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law. That's like having Messi, Ronaldo and Mbappe in the same team," Kelly recalled on the BBC's Sporting Witness programme.
Former Hull City player Frankie Banks said: "It was a massive game, playing against Manchester United, who two years earlier had won the European Cup.
"The atmosphere was electrifying.
"The Man United players were our heroes. On paper we didn't stand a chance. We wanted to win, we wanted to prove to everybody that although they were the best side probably in the world we could go out and give them a game."
And that is exactly what they did, taking the lead on 11 minutes through Chris Chilton before Law pulled one back for United in the 78th minute to send the game into extra time. As the clocked ticked down on the additional half-hour, players realised they were about to be part of something historic.
"[Hull player-manager] Terry Neill obviously asked for volunteers and some of the lads were reluctant to step up and take the penalties and some were brave enough to step up and say 'I'll take one, I'll take one and I'll take one'," said Banks, who was not on the team sheet that day but was at the game.
"Nobody wants to be the one that misses."
And, in particular, no-one wants to be the first player ever to miss in a shootout.
However, Best was happy to go down as the first player to score, sending his right-footed shot low into the left corner.
For Hull City, Neill became the first player-manager to score in a shootout, helping keep the score level at 3-3.
"It was still anybody's game and the noise was deafening," said Banks.
But then, in a moment that countless big-name players to come would experience through the decades, Law saw his low shot saved by a diving Ian McKechnie.
"For ever and ever, Law will go down as the first man to miss in a penalty shootout and McKechnie will go down as the first goalkeeper to save a penalty in a penalty shootout," said Banks.
Ken Wagstaff then missed for Hull and so when Willie Morgan scored for United, Hull knew they had to convert their final kick.
And that was when McKechnie became the first keeper to take a penalty in a shootout.
"Please, not him," Kelly remembers thinking. "I couldn't believe it, my mum couldn't believe it, even Alex Stepney the Man United keeper couldn't believe it and actually asked him what he was doing up there. I had my head in my hands!"
McKechnie stepped up and blasted a powerful strike... against the upper side of the crossbar. And with that, he became the first keeper to miss a penalty in a shootout.
"I still maintain that Ian McKechnie was the right choice – he had a sweet left foot – and he had the guts to do it. I'd have put money on him to score," said Banks.
"Missing that penalty stayed with Ian for the rest of his life."
Of course, there have been many Laws and McKechnies since. In fact, statisticians say 24% of penalties in shootouts are missed.
They have settled some of the biggest competitions, with the World Cup final going to penalties three times – in 1994, 2006 and 2022.
The first major international title to be decided on penalties was the 1976 European Championship – with the winning kick the now infamous and audacious chip named after Antonin Panenka.
Over the years, England's men have experienced plenty of misery in shootouts, losing seven times at major tournaments in that way.
Two days ago, Wales' dreams of playing at this year's World Cup were ended by Bosnia-Herzegovina in the now all-too-familiar emotional rollercoaster of a penalty shootout.
But before that night in Hull, no-one had known what to expect.
Ten penalties later, they did.
"Each kick was agony," said Kelly.
And more than six decades later, that still stands.