Sunderland have been practicing penalty-kicks ahead of tonight's Championship play-off semi-final second leg at Luton Town - just in case. And Tony Mowbray has already warned his players that he has no truck with stuttering run-ups and tippy-tappy spot-kicks!
The Black Cats hold a 2-1 lead in the tie after coming from behind to beat the Hatters at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, but they must complete the job at Kenilworth Road tonight to seal a place in the final at Wembley against either Middlesbrough or Coventry City. If Luton were to win by a single goal tonight to level the scores on aggregate, the game would go to extra-time.
The away goals rule is not used in the play-offs, meaning that if there was still nothing between the sides after the additional half-hour the contest would be decided by a penalty shootout. Some managers believe penalties are a skill that can be honed in advance, and others feel that is a waste of time because the pressure of the situation cannot be replicated on the training ground.
READ MORE: Tony Mowbray backs Sunderland to keep their scoring run going and pile play-off pressure on Luton
Asked which school of thought he subscibes to, Mowbray smiled: "I'm somewhere in the middle on that. I left them practicing penalties yesterday lunchtime when I came to speak to you guys [the media].
"What I do is dictate to them how to take a penalty, but I know they've all got their own styles. If I've got seven people taking a penalty and, when I watch them, one of them is one of those guys who takes two steps, stops, looks at the goalie, and sidefoots a little soft one in the corner, he's not taking one!
"It's crept into the game, hasn't it, these penalties where people take one step, stop, look at the goalkeeper and try to sidefoot it into the corner. If you're [Brentford striker and penalty specialist] Ivan Toney who has scored a massive percentage of his penners - great.
"Although I still think, when I watch Ivan Toney, he still raps it with his sidefoot pretty hard, it's not a case of him guessing which way the goalkeeper is going to go and then trickling it in so all the fans think it's brilliant. I'd rather them just whack it in the net!"
Mowbray will only make detailed penalty plans if and when he has to, admitting that it is almost impossible to guess who will still be out on the pitch after a gruelling 120 minutes of football. "Listen, I don't know who is going to be on the pitch at the end," he said.
"I don't know how the game is going to go. To get to penalties you have to play 120 minutes, including extra-time, and who is on the pitch, who is confident, who is having a great game, who's having a shocker yet he's a penalty-taker but he's just missed a sitter and he doesn't want to take one now. We'll do it on the night, and whatever will be, will be."
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