Former Liverpool forward Craig Bellamy has revealed that he didn't want to take a penalty during the Reds' League Cup triumph over his boyhood club Cardiff City in 2012.
The Welshman enjoyed two spells at Anfield in 2006 and 2011, and during his second stint at the club he was part of Kenny Dalglish's side that ended the club's six-year trophy drought as they defeated Championship outfit Cardiff City at Wembley on penalties.
Despite boasting a superior line-up - with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Pepe Reina all starting the contest - it was the Bluebirds who took the lead at Wembley, as Joe Mason slotted under the Spanish goalkeeper. However, a second-half equaliser from defender Martin Skrtel forced the game into extra time.
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Dalglish's side thought they had sealed their first trophy since 2006 when Dirk Kuyt scored 18 minutes into extra time, but the Dutchman's effort was swiftly cancelled out when Ben Turner bundled the ball over the line to force a penalty shoot-out.
Even after missing their first two penalties through Steven Gerrard and Charlie Adam, the Reds would run out 3-2 winners as the Liverpool captain's cousin Anthony Gerrard sliced his spot-kick wide of Reina's post. Following the duo's attempt from the spot, Dirk Kuyt, Stewart Downing and Glen Johnson all converted their efforts from 12 yards for the Reds.
Speaking on the Central Club podcast, the former Wales international revealed the reason behind not putting himself forward for a penalty and the regret he has for not doing so.
"When it came to pens, I didn't want to take a pen," admitted the 43-year-old, who is now Vincent Kompany's assistant at Burnley. "I felt part of me as like I didn't want to score for Liverpool to win it and break Cardiff's hearts. Or I didn't want to miss for Liverpool and be remembered as the person who Cardiff ended up winning a trophy due to a Cardiff boy playing for Liverpool.
"I wanted to stay out of fate. It's not like me either, it still p***** me off. I should have [taken one]. But I was like, 'No. I want to win it because I want to win the cup.' But I'm telling you honestly if they won the cup, I would have been ok. Even when we won it, it didn't feel like winning. I went and spoke to Hudds [Mark Huddson] after and part of me was like, 'I'll be with you lot next year. I'll come and play for yous.'"
Bellamy would join Cardiff later in 2012 as he finally made the move to his boyhood club. But the former Liverpool No.39 was full of praise for the organised and hard-working outfit he came up against at Wembley, and couldn't resist a smile as Turner bundled the ball home with seconds remaining on the clock.
"Obviously, we did a lot of work on Cardiff coming into the game and they don't play. Listen, they're not going to get past us here, you don't have to worry about any of this. They're not going to look to break lines. It's big up to the target man. Build around him, but set plays [are] dangerous. Any ball in our half that goes out of play in a dead-ball situation, they had Gunnarsson from the halfway line into your box. They were hard-working and well organised, run from each other, so it was always going to be a difficult game.
"I remember being on, and I knew they were hard-working, and I remember it was a long throw-in, corner, another long-throw-in. If we would have broke, I would have gone one-on-one. And I'm there waiting there for the moment like, 'Please, if we clear this I'm in. I can go.' But we couldn't get the ball. It was like every time we cleared it, it went out for a throw-in, went out for a corner. They had just missed as well and I thought that's their chance."
He added: "It went out for another corner and when they scored, part of me was like, 'We couldn't do anything.' There was nothing we could do because the ball was never in play. We spent the last five minutes and I reckon the ball was in play for about twenty seconds and it was just long throw-ins and corners. Part of me, the smile was like, 'It was going to happen.' I've seen too much of this team and I've watched them obviously with Malky [Mackay] as well. Part of me thought, 'Credit to them as well.' To have the balls that they had, the fighting spirit as well."
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