Danny Mills praises 26 y/o for stepping up during “pressure moment” – Report

It was only a penalty, but hopefully it’s the start of something special for this man.

Patrick Bamford broke his recent goal drought with a penalty against Blackburn Rovers, and one former Leeds man has taken the opportunity for having the courage to step up and take responsibility of the situation.

Speaking to Football Insider, Danny Mills said that the decision to take the penalty showed a lot of mental strength from Bamford and a lot of faith from head coach Marcelo Biela:

“You have to say, from the penalty spot as well, that’s a brave decision when you’re on a bit of a drought. That’s a pressure penalty when you’re at that stage of the game. It’s a big call to take that penalty so fair play to him, all credit. Stepped up very, very calmly and slotted it into the back of the net. It takes a lot of courage to do that, shows he’s confident that the manager’s got faith in him.”

Mills is bang on the money here. It was an incredibly risky decision to step up and take that penalty and there was a real ‘boom or bust’ element to it. If he misses that, it could very easily lead into a sort of downward spiral for Bamford as the doubt continues to build when he’ll be able to find the back of the net again.

The question is going to be whether or not this starts another run of goals for Bamford. He already went through a bit of a purple patch at the start of the season, when he got four goals and an assist in the side’s first five games. Despite that fine start though it was then followed up by a baron spell where he went ten games without a goal, leading many to call for him to be dropped and replaced with Eddie Nketiah.

One other factor in amongst all this will be how much of an effect the international break has on this ‘form’, and whether or not having got that goal-scoring touch back, this break will stop the momentum dead in its tracks.

Maybe he should be on penalty duty full-time from now on? Perhaps that will act as a boost to get more goals from open play.