OXFORD United goalkeeper Billy Turley is confident of winning the mind games with returning centre forward Rob Duffy should Mansfield get a penalty at the Kassam Stadium tomorrow.
Duffy proved a master of the spot-kick in his time at Oxford, with a brilliant record of successful penalty conversions.
But Turley is on his own impressive run of penalty saves, and he reckons that, if the visitors were lucky enough to be awarded one, he would do enough to force the Welshman into missing from 12 yards.
It will be 26-year-old Duffy's first return to the Kassam Stadium since he was released by Oxford last summer.
Turley said: “I've been texting him all week, and he's been texting me all week.
“I've said, if we're 5-0 up with a minute to go, I'm going to have to push him over in the box and we'll have a duel!
“He's probably the best penalty- taker I've ever seen.
“It will be interesting if they get one, but I'm sure I would save it.
“In training, we used to have this competition to see who could score five out of five and nobody's ever done that yet – to be fair, the only one who has was Jordan (Milsom), the fitness coach, but that's another story – but Duffs never did it.
“Obviously, we had practice games and he'd score some, and I'd save some.”
Turley reckons he would psychologically outwit him.
“It would take about ten minutes for him to take one if they got a penalty tomorrow, but they're not going to get one. I think I might be getting booked before the penalty is taken!” he joked.
United's No 1 saved his last spot-kick, against Lewes on February 1, and hasn't been beaten for a while.
He added: “My penalty record is excellent. I've got a ratio like Reina at Liverpool – that's what I keep telling everyone anyway.
“I've got a couple of things I look for, but I wouldn't want to give them away in the paper. With the last three or so they've proved dead right so I'll keep that for myself.”
United's assistant manager, Mickey Lewis, said: “Rob can be a handful and I'm sure he'll be giving it everything because it's his old club.
“We know all about him and know he can get hold of the ball, and we know he's a good penalty taker. Hopefully he won't get one, but if he does, I think Billy might psyche him out!”
Turley feels United have had to go for wins because they were so far behind the leading teams, and that has worked in their favour.
“The five-point deduction was a terrible thing to happen, but in a way it's Stick or Bust, you might as well go for it now,” he said.
“I said when we had 18 to go we'd win 'em all! I'm not too far off at the moment, we've just got to win another 14 and we'll be all right!”
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