Dan James will now be looking to put his Wales heartache behind him when Leeds United return to action tomorrow.
James was part of the Welsh quartet at Leeds who saw their dreams of qualifying for this summer’s EUROs come to a crushing end, as they were defeated 5-4 on penalties by Poland in Cardiff.
Unfortunately, it was Leeds star James who missed the decisive spot-kick. He was Wales’ fifth designated taker but saw hie effort saved by Wojciech Szczesny, with all nine players having stepped up and scored previously.
The 26-year-old will not have much time to digest the week’s events as he faces a swift turnaround to club action, with Leeds back in action in their push for promotion with a trip to Watford.
Troy Deeney does not think Leeds’ Welshmen will carry the baggage of international disappointment into their club football, and says they will actually be happy to be able to quickly put it to the back of their minds.
However, his fellow talkSPORT pundit Gabby Agbonlahor could not resist a dig at Leeds man James for missing his penalty live on air earlier this morning.
Agbonlahor has theory over why James missed his penalty for Wales against Poland
Leeds fans will be all too aware of Agbonlahor’s feelings towards the Whites, having come under scrutiny from him so many times in the past.
Since dropping into the Championship he has been a little quieter, but with Leeds in a decent position to return to the Premier League, Agbonlahor has been back talking about the club again.
He has said on more than one occasion that he would prefer to see Ipswich Town promotion ahead of Leeds, due to their performances last time they were in the top-flight.
And Agbonlahor could not resist chucking a sly little dig at James for missing his penalty, sharing why he ‘knew he was going to miss’ when he stepped up.
He said: “When I heard Dan James, when I saw he was the one that’s going to take it, I knew he was going to miss. If you watch Dan James as a player, he has got very good attributes, but technically he is not great.”
Agbonlahor theory on James clearly wrong
Unfortunately for Agbonlahor, he was never in the position during his career to step up and take a penalty for his country, so knows about as much as the average fan.
Every player in James’ position has more than enough technical ability to step up, take a penalty and score. They probably do it on a daily basis in training.
However, it takes far more than that to do it on a stage as big as the one James was on earlier this week, having had the whole country of Wales on his shoulders.
It is far more down to having the bottle to really pick your spot and put your foot through it, as pressure can do funny things to players. A player with 12 goals and seven assists in a single season clearly doesn’t have an issue with technical ability in front of goal.