The Capital One Cup semi-final between Manchester United and Sunderland was settled by the worst penalty shoot-out I have ever seen.

I hate it when I see events like that in professional sport – because it is purely down to a lack of preparation.

It irritates me when managers and coaches take the attitude that you can’t replicate the pressure of the situation, therefore there’s no point in practising penalties.

That’s the biggest load of rubbish I’ve ever heard in my life.

Gary Neville tweeted after the match that taking penalties was about a mixture of technique and confidence.

I agree with him to some degree, but you also have to add in the magic word preparation.

Town fans may remember me taking a few penalties for the club.

Those with ‘a glass half full’ will remember me scoring from the spot in my hat trick against Millwall. Those with ‘a glass half empty’ will remember my miss against Leeds which directly led to them going up the other end and Ian Baird scoring against us!

While I took a few penalties in my career in this country, I always took them when I went to play abroad and I quickly learned the value of preparation and technique.

There tend to be two major flaws when people haven’t practised taking penalties, and they inevitably end up leading to problems.

Firstly, when a player places the ball, he should move away an exact distance. Whatever is comfortable to the player is fine – four yards, five yards, six or even further – but it should be the same every single time.

Secondly, players should keep a short stride in the run-up so that they are capable of adjusting at the last second if they need to.

Quite often you will see players set off with a long stride and then it’s almost impossible for them to adjust.

The easiest example to give would be someone like Jonny Wilkinson in rugby union. His routine never alters and it should be the same for penalty takers in football.

I would always take 10 penalties at the end of training into an empty net. I would hit five to the left and five to the right and I would always have a six-yard run-up and a short stride.

After a while it became second nature and, if I spotted the keeper moving, I could adjust late to shoot for the opposite side.

What this all meant was that I felt fully in control of what was happening.

That’s why golfers may hit 100-plus 4ft putts before they go onto the course – just so the technique takes over when the pressure is on.

My only hope now is that Gary Neville reads this column and he makes sure all England’s potential penalty takers are well prepared when it comes to the World Cup – and that they practise regularly.

You don’t want people making it up as they go along.