She Kicks Back: What A Nightmare! (Gayle Formston)

A short heritage vignette from the She Kicks Back 25th-anniversary spread, built around Gayle Formston’s account of the penalty she missed in the 1996 Women’s FA Cup final. Formston had been the heroine when Liverpool’s semi-final against Arsenal went to penalties, so when the final against Croydon looked certain to be settled the same way, the 20-year-old was sent on with a minute of extra time left. It is debatable whether she touched the ball before the whistle, but she volunteered to take a kick, saying she had done it under pressure a few weeks earlier and was not nervous. With Jill Thomas and Jody Handley having missed and a teenage Rachel Brown saving Tara Proctor’s effort, the shoot-out stood at 3-2. Put off by goalkeeper Louise Cooper’s positioning, she leaned back and lifted it over the bar.