Gareth paid penalty for having a bit of bottle.

Byline: Alan McInally 

MY advice to Gareth Southgate would be: forget all about taking penalty kicks.

Southgate seems almost haunted by Euro 96 when he missed such a high-profile spot-kick against Germany.

It's as if he won't be happy until he's finally converted one.

He probably shouldn't have put himself forward for Wednesday's night's penalty shootout at West Ham.

But he is the captain and at least he had the bottle to step up when others perhaps didn't fancy it.

Anyone but Southgate missing a penalty would hardly have made backpage headlines.

But he was made to feel extra bad after the England miss and this only compounds it.

Southgate taking a penalty grabs the attention 100 times more than anyone else.

Of course, had Gareth scored then he could have put the European Championship episode behind him to a certain extent.

But now he has to live with another miss and one that dismissed Villa from a cup competition.

If I was him, the next time Villa have a comfortable lead and get a penalty near the end, I'd take it.

There'd be no pressure and it would make him feel a whole lot better.

For now though, I reckon he should stay out after training every day for a couple of weeks and blast 20 penalties a day.

There is little to prepare players for cup shootouts though. How can you possibly re-create the tension and the atmosphere of such a thing.

Gareth's cause wasn't helped by the fact he had 23,000 West Ham fans jeering him. The significance of the moment wasn't lost on them and only made things worse.

The whole thing was unbelievable and must have been mental torture for Southgate which is why it is difficult to understand why he took it.

Only he knows the answer to that question. I just hope he can concentrate on his game from now on and stop letting penalty kicks affect him.

All I'll say to try and comfort Gareth is that some of the best players in the world miss them. Who would have thought Roberto Baggio, one of the coolest characters in the game, would have have fluffed his kick in the 1994 World Cup final against Brazil?

Forest must stand by Platt

AT the start of this season, I said that David Platt would not find his second managerial job at Forest an easy task.

But I certainly didn't expect to find him in his current situation, struggling to stay at the City Ground.

Division One is probably one of the hardest leagues in Britain because most of the teams are so equal and everyone wants to get into the top flight.

But I have to say that I don't think David inherited the strongest squad of players.

And his decision to bring in three Italians was not the best.

I think that probably split the camp more than he would have wanted.

The fact that he brought in Ian Wright on loan showed that he was having some problems and needed quality in the side.

But that was only ever going to be a short-term thing and could not paper over the cracks.

Sacking Platt is definitely not the right move to make though. He is still highly regarded in the game and well thought of in FA circles.

CAPTION(S):

25AGONY... Southgate after his latest miss