Jordan Pickford at centre of bizarre ban demand over penalty antics

Jamie O’Hara has hit out at Jordan Pickford after the Everton goalkeeper consulted notes written on his water bottle before facing Lukas Nmecha’s late penalty at Elland Road.

Pickford’s homework on the opposition’s favoured spot-kick placement was not enough to save Everton, with Nmecha calmly slotting home despite the keeper correctly anticipating the direction of his shot. 

The German forward’s successful conversion of the penalty, awarded after visiting captain James Tarkowski was adjudged to have handled an effort from Anton Stach, earned Leeds a 1-0 win. 

But former Tottenham midfielder O’Hara has claimed that the practice of checking notes about the likely direction of penalties runs counter to the spirit of the game.

‘You have to ban anything being written on water bottles’

“You see [Pickford] pick his water bottle up, he’s obviously got a load of information on there,” O’Hara told talkSPORT. “I’m not having that. I think it needs to be knocked on the head, it needs to be banned.

“I think you have to ban anything being written on water bottles. I think it’s unacceptable. The penalty is a fifty-fifty, you against the keeper, but the keeper has all of the information.

“I don’t think it’s fair, it’s unsportsmanlike, if you’re allowed to have all of the water bottles with all of the information written on it. He dives the right way by the way.” 

It is not the first time Pickford has used pre-match analysis to gain an edge against opposition penalty-takers.

The England stopper memorably kept out Switzerland’s first effort after checking notes written on his water bottle at last summer’s European Championships, correctly guessing the direction of Manuel Akanji’s spot-kick to ensure his team’s passage to the semi-finals.

Hannah Hampton adopted a similar approach as England overcame Spain on penalties to win the Euro 2025 final in Basel last month, consulting a cheat sheet taped to her arm.

The England stopper also dispatched a water bottle into the crowd belonging to Cata Coll, the Spain goalkeeper, who had noted down the Lionesses’ penalty preferences.

‘I never put it on  bottle – anyone can do that’

“I never put it on a bottle, because anyone can do that, so that is why I put it on my arm,” said Hampton. “It wasn’t hard: when she has gone in the goal [the bottle] is on its own, isn’t it? It is in a towel, you just pick it up. 

“Mine is blank, but it has the same sponsors and stuff so I just put mine in there, chucked her one into the fans and she had an empty bottle.” 

While industrial espionage of this kind is rare, there is nothing new in the goalkeeping fraternity doing their homework on penalty takers – as O’Hara’s fellow pundit Jason Cundy pointed out.

“It’s research, it’s what professional goalkeepers do, they have been doing it for years,” said Cundy. 

“Every single penalty, you should score. The odds are stacked against the goalkeeper, it’s not 50/50. Most penalties are scored.”