Juan Pablo Angel will remain as Aston Villa's penalty-taker, even though Gareth Barry surprisingly took the kick from which Aston Villa opened the scoring against Fulham on Saturday.
Villa drew 1-1 without playing well but Angel, who missed a penalty the previous week against Tottenham Hotspur, was expecting to take the kick here when Stiliyan Petrov was fouled by Liam Rosenior in the 25th minute.
But Barry, the Villa captain, took matters into his own hands and blasted the kick high into the goal.
"I wasn't expecting a penalty straight away, to be fair," Barry said. "We had a slight discussion and Juan said he was happy to take one if it came up. I was happy to step up and take it.
"Juan Pablo said he would take them. It surprised him we got the penalty so early. He was thinking of last week and I was confident enough to say I'll take it. I wasn't expecting to take it so I thought just hit it hard and make a contact and if the keeper is going to get near it, make it hard for him to save it."
Angel says he did not push the issue because, he says, Barry seemed to be in better shape. Angel had missed five of his previous six kicks and feared that another miss would have put Villa under pressure.
"I had the option to take it but Gareth was in a better shape and he scored and it was great for the team," Angel said. "I felt it was the right thing to do.
"That will not affect my confidence. Sometimes you have to do what is best for the team and I think Gareth took it well.
"The good thing is the manager gave me the confidence and believed in me and I really appreciate that because it means a lot but the whole thing is a bit disappointing because we wanted to win and didn't do enough to win it."
Even Martin O'Neill, the Villa manager, was surprised that Barry took the kick but was not complaining when the team took the lead.
"It shows what can happen between dressing-room and on the pitch because I'm giving it that Angel is taking the next penalty, which he said in the dressing-room if we got one," O'Neill said. "Lo and behold we get one, there is a bit of conversation going on, and next thing Gareth steps up. I was quite pleased he took it.
"Juan did want to take it and that's fine. You don't want to be destroying the boy's confidence over a penalty but I was pleased Gareth took it, but then someone reminded me of the last one he missed."
But disappointment hung over Villa Park like a black cloud. This was the first time the team failed to match expectations and the 1-1 draw felt like a defeat.
"Throughout the 90 minutes, that is the worst we have played," Barry said. "We were poor first half against Tottenham but for 90 minutes [against Fulham] it was slightly disappointing especially with the early goal.
"You then expect to get some more belief then and excite the fans but the goal just before half time set us back. I was thinking we've gone away to bigger teams like Chelsea and Arsenal and frustrated them in the same way Fulham did it to us.
"It is tough to break teams down when they are sitting back. We found that out for ourselves. A solid unit of good players means you will need something special to break them down and that's why the top teams have got the world-class players who do it."
O'Neill was equally frustrated with the performance but stopped way short of dispensing criticism. After all, this Villa team remains unbeaten.
"We didn't play well," O'Neill said. "Even with the benefit of the penalty, we never kick-started. It was a disappointing display. It would be difficult to be throwing major criticism at the players.
"They have done really well but today was an opportunity for us to put the first half against Tottenham behind us, go and win the game and play with a bit of gusto and panache.
"It was a poor game. I didn't think Fulham caused us too many problems but that is not the point. we are at home, the onus is on us to attack and play and we couldn’t get going for long enough.
"We have to do better to keep supporters happy here. We missed McCann but we are a Premiership side and we have got to be able to deal with these sort of things. It is going to happen during a season. We missed his influence.
"He has been playing splendidly. Until we get a stronger squad about us, then we are going to miss the good players. We have to play flat out to get some results on the board but we weren't flat out today. We were flat."
