5 famous 'two-man' penalties in footballing history

#2 Johnny Newman - Plymouth Argyle

Mike Trebilcock scored a two-man penalty for Plymouth Argyle

Johnny Newman is the man credited with introducing the ‘two-man’ penalty to English shores. On the 6th of February, 1961, the Plymouth Argyle captain, scored the first tap penalty in England, as the Pilgrims went down 3-5 away to Aston Villa in a fourth round replay of the 1961/62 League Cup. Wilf Carter was the man who was assigned penalty duties on that day, and tapped the ball to the side, allowing Newman to run in and score.

Three years later, on the 21st of November, 1964, Newman was at it again, although this time he was the provider, as he tapped the ball to an onrushing Mike Trebilcock to score Argyle’s second ‘tandem’ penalty in three years. The opponents this time were Manchester City, as the Pilgrims eventually beat the Citizens 3-2 in a Division Two clash at Home Park.

Trebilcock, who later won the FA Cup with Everton, recalls the incident, but perhaps mistakenly credits his manager with the idea, saying “I was playing for Plymouth Argyle at the time and Malcolm Allison was the manager. It was one of his mad ideas.”

“Our captain, John Newman, was the man to run forward and touch the ball, while I was assigned to follow up and knock it into the net. We'd practised it a few times during training and, coincidentally, it was a match against Manchester City when we got the chance to try it out for real. We won the game 3-2, but I think it was 0-0 at the time when we did it.”

Here is the video of the effort: