McKenna: Hirst Still Has My Trust From the Spot
Monday, 20th Oct 2025 17:59

Town boss Kieran McKenna says George Hirst retains his trust from the penalty spot despite the Scotland international missing his last two kicks.

Hirst netted from the spot deep into injury time to claim a point for the Blues at Birmingham in the opening game of the season, but since then has seen kicks saved at Bromley in the Carabao Cup shootout and then at Middlesbrough on Friday just before the Teessiders took the lead.

Meanwhile, Jack Clarke has netted two penalties in the games at home to Derby having come off the bench and away against Bristol City to secure draws.

“We’ve got a few experienced takers in the squad, to be fair,” McKenna said. “George has scored one and missed one in the league.

“He stepped up with a big, big penalty against Birmingham and you can probably have more pressured situations, but it was the first game and it was still a really big moment and he took a really good penalty.

“He’s taken good penalties for us before, so we trust him as a taker, trust Jack as a taker, trust Chuba [Akpom] as a taker, I’d trust Ashley Young with a penalty, I’d trust Sam Szmodics, I’d trust Jaden [Philogene], there’s lots of players I’d trust.

“We we designate for each game and how that pans out over the course of the season we’ll see, but we feel like we’ve got a lot of good penalty-takers there.

“To be fair, I don’t think you can get away from it, it was a really, really good save the other night, and that can happen to the best players in the world. Whoever takes the next one, will do the very best to score.”

Photo: Matchday Images

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flykickingbybgunn added 18:08 - Oct 20 I thought he hit it hard and low to the keepers right. The goalie guessed the right way and made a great save. Just one of those things. No need to relieve Hirst of his duties.
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bugblatter added 18:45 - Oct 20 Not low enough, powerful enough, or close enough to the post to be insaveable. I feared the worst when he slept stepped up and was right. I miss Tommy Miller!
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blueboy1981 added 18:53 - Oct 20 What ??
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Blue_Heath added 19:00 - Oct 20 Good man management but we really need a proper taker.
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BrandonsBlues added 19:08 - Oct 20 Not the fact that Hirst looked to his left and made it obvious which way he was going then. Not difficult for the keeper to read.
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AJW1971 added 19:21 - Oct 20 Must be due to the phrase 3rd time lucky, cos I can’t see any other reason
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Gforce added 20:02 - Oct 20 Well i had no confidence whatsoever when he stepped up,I just knew he would miss.It was a poor penalty with no real conviction . If he does take the next one,it's poor management im afraid. and won't do Hirsts confidence much good when he misses again.
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billlm added 21:11 - Oct 20 Love to to bits my life, but I'm not sure this manager has a backbone, Was a telegraphed penalty, no question he should be relieved of duties, Not saying Clarke should if in the pitch but that Derby penalty was sheer guts, He's been slaughtered in here not a great start for town and meant that with gusto, sort it out McKenna,
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DannyITFC added 21:16 - Oct 20

When you have quality on the pitch like Cajuste surely he’s a better option? You need a calm head and if Young was playing I’d give it to him every single time. Smozdics can’t be any worse than Hirst from the spot? Or Jaden who has confidence and oozes the X Factor too. I just hope Hirst is not out in that difficult position to step up tomorrow night if we get another penalty, he needs that pressure off him atm and concentrate on scoring from open play and holding the ball up. Something tells me Azon starts tomorrow night as he has looked dangerous lately (Nunez too).

jas0999 added 21:54 - Oct 20 Hoping this is just PR. Hirst must not EVER take another penalty. We have invested around £200M in a squad, but still plat Hirst. Sorry, he’s a below average championship player.
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ChrisFelix added 22:16 - Oct 20 Hate to say it but whilst Hirst starts as our no 9 there is no chance of a top 2 finish
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Bert added 22:49 - Oct 20

Can’t agree with KMcK’s trust in Hirst as a penalty taker. His penalty at Birmingham was not convincing and his body shape for the penalty against Borough was a clear signal to the goalkeeper to go right. Hirst needs to drop to the bench. That said I acknowledge that we are a team very much in the making and I am certainly not expecting fluidity throughout the team until all the new players have gelled.

armchaircritic59 added 23:43 - Oct 20

Everything about GH's goalscoring record from after he stopped playing for the various England youth teams tells you he is much more of a target man than a hit man these days. He needs other players around him who can feed off his hold up play ( when it returns to full capacity! ), who are more regular goalscorers. We might have thought that both SS and CA would fit the bill having scored nearly 60 goals between them in this league 2 seasons ago. Thereby is the problem, it's not wise to take statistics from more than 1 season ago, which appears to be being proven by both of them together having made 8 starts and of course several sub appearances and not a single goal between them. Of course, they may yet start finding some sort of regular goalscoring form, otherwise we might be reliant on JP who seems to be a bit mercurial, either almost unplayable ( very largely at home ) or anonymous ( very largely away ).

I thought we really needed another striker apart from GH and IA, it's beginning to look rather like it. Let's just hope one or two of the above can find some goalscoring form very soon, and way before January!

ITFCsince78 added 23:54 - Oct 20

I miss Delap, we were spoilt having such a raw talent, his penalties were decisive, powerful and extremely accurate. I wish some of his magic rubbed off on George for this season.

Our left side is the source of everything good, bad and ugly, far too predictable. Because of this, there is no way we’ll finish top 2 but at least we’ll give some teams a good thrashing along the way. COYB, let’s put Charlton to the Sword tomorrow!!

armchaircritic59 added 00:03 - Oct 21

ITFC, can see where you're coming from. I well remember a comment back in the day from the best passer of a ball we've ever had at the club, a certain Arnold Muhren. He said his right foot was just for standing on! Of course his left foot more than made up for it.

I feel the right side of our team is the equivalent of AM's right foot at the moment! It doesn't function. We are very very unbalanced with about 90% of what's good going down the left hand side, which as you say can be unpredictable. It needs to change, let's hope KM can find a solution and quickly!

Ebantiass added 05:51 - Oct 21

Hirst is simply not good enough and its only the penalty miss the reason I say that. The ball rarely sticks to him to bring others into the game in attacking positions and he has´nt looked threatening in front of goal for a while. I notivced that before the last match in the prediction league literally NOBODY had Hirst as the for scorer neither sammy szmodicz. There was many for jaden and even clarke who was on the bench. We can forget top two and maybe even the play offs if the gaffa sticks with hirst and sammy as our main pair up front.

The_Prof added 07:55 - Oct 21

Regarding the comments above about Szmodics, he will score goals if he's played further forward and has some decent service; we've seen in the Prem that he's an instinctive finisher, but at the moment he's running himself into the ground trying to make things happen. Unfortunately we're wedded to the idea of the big target man, which is fine if that man is someone in the mould of Delap or Mariner, but it isn't the only way to play? In fact, most Championship teams have two big lumps at centreback who will head it away all day, but they're rarely mobile or fast, so they can be beaten by decisive passing to feet in the last third of the pitch? You just have to do things at pace.

lozklein added 09:39 - Oct 21 Hirst is not at the level to lead our attack. Should benck him. Start up front with either Akpom, Egeli, Sammy orf Azon......there, we have options in the squad
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Rimsy added 09:53 - Oct 21 Hirst is a poor penalty taker. Never projects confidence he's going to score. It's worrying McK backs him as it's obvious to anyone.
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Gforce added 10:43 - Oct 21 Excellent point from above poster,Hirst would definitely benefit from watching a few videos of Delap confidently taking penalties last season.He took a pen with pace,power and confidence.
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JewellintheTown added 11:08 - Oct 21

Goals are a lifeblood to a player like Hirst to build confidence, and so are KM's words to him. Good management in front of the cameras from KM but I'm sure he knows he needs to look for a more reliable solution to penalties without upsetting his players.
Might be best at the moment for Hirst to just focus on scoring during open play to rebuild confidence and take some pressure off. McKenna will be able to communicate that to him without smashing his confidence. No point in keep pressurising him at the moment if its not working.
Keep practicing penalties off field & bring him back in for penalties during a less pressured match. Needs to stop those silly nervous on the spot jogs at the start though & learnt to change his body language and gives to the keeper, plus learn to hit those top corners.

ArnieM added 12:26 - Oct 21

Hirst isnt an out and out goal scorer in that striker mould. What he is, is a target man to hold the ball up and bring others int the game. This he does very well and there's no one else like him for doing that , at the club. BUT we need some one who can stick it in the net on a regular basis .

On another point :
Why is it players join us ( McKenna's targets ) and are very good at their previous clubs, only to play for us and their form goes down the pan?

McKenna needs to CHANGE his approach