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Oops....Got nowhere near that one either....

A few years ago, former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton was a live guest on our Sunday afternoon football programme, the Westcountry Match. He'd retired from international football after Italia 90, and ended up as Player/Manager at Plymouth Argyle. Not a fantastic reward after clocking up 125 England appearances, particularly with a Chairman like Dan McCauley to deal with.

 Anyway, Shilts agreed to come along and join me in the studio as the pundit for a match involving one of his former clubs Nottingham Forest. We had loads of time to chat while the match was being broadcast, so I took the opportunity to ask him about the penalty shoot out defeat by the Germans in 1990. What were his tactics, and what was going through his mind as the drama unfolded?

 He told me that, because a lot of the German players were young and inexperienced, he wasn't going to make up his mind and dive one way or the other early. Instead he would wait and expect some of the shots to be towards the middle of the goal, or at the least, not far enough into the corners to prevent a much later dive saving them.

Great theory Shilts. Only one problem. You never really got close to any of them did you?

I don't think he liked us that much really. We used former Chelsea and England star Peter Osgood as the co-commentator and studio guest for the local derby at Home Park which ended Plymouth 0 Exeter City 3. Osgood accused Shilton of tactical naivety on the programme and, because Osgood had played with the Exeter Manager Alan Ball at Southampton, Shilts reckoned we were all biased against Argyle. Maybe it was all our fault that they lost 3-0 as well. 

For someone who'd been in football for so long he was remarkably thin skinned.

In the return fixture at St. James Park, he noticed in the match programme that I was sponsoring Exeter for every goal they scored...something you get roped into when you get accosted walking through the bar (Dave Bennett!). He took great pleasure in mentioning this to me in front of the assembled press pack after the game as evidence of how we were all anti him and Argyle (which wasn't the case at all...honest guv!)

Strangely enough Shilton was a lot friendlier in 2006 when ITV stumped up some money for him to do an extended interview before the World Cup to assess England's chances. He greeted me like a long lost friend when we met at the Thurlestone Hotel in South Devon where he was holidaying at the time. His big revelation......England must stick with Paul Robinson in goal!

 Thanks Peter. Got a tip for the 3.30 at Newton Abbot?

Shilton...Better at pointing than saving pens...