Usually winning a penalty is an occasion to be celebrated – a golden chance to take one step closer to victory from 12 yards with the probability of scoring suggested to be around 70% – but the reality couldn’t have been any different for Bangor in the early-2000s.

When Paul Millar missed from the spot in a 1-1 draw against Armagh City in October 2000, many would have dismissed it as bad luck or losing what’s often described as a lottery, and perhaps even Gary Sliney’s failure to convert less than a month later in defeat to Carrick Rangers could be put down to yet more misfortune.

However, it turned out to be just the beginning of Bangor’s penalty woes as the 2001/02 campaign began with Crawford McRae, Colin Callacher, Dean Doherty, John Douglas, David McMahon and Colin Beggs all misfiring from the spot – those six remarkably coming within a 63-day spell between September and November and, as statistician Marshall Gillespie reported, it created a new UK record for missed penalties, breaking the previous best (or worst) of Southend United.

“I remember mine and there was talk in the dressing room about the amount of penalties we'd missed during that time,” said Douglas, who is now assistant manager of the Seasiders. “It was Andy McDonald in nets for Larne and there was an injury to a player before I hit the penalty so I'd to wait a few minutes.

placeholder image — John Douglas in action for Bangor against Linfield in 2001. (Photo by Pacemaker Press)

"Andy is a very good friend of mine and I was really confident in hitting penalties...I tried to give him the eyes but he guessed correctly. I ended up playing with Andy and he still brought it up and rubbed that penalty in as a bit of banter in the changing room!”

While most Irish League clubs have their own designated penalty taker these days – Ben Kennedy has scored six of them this season for Ballymena United – Bangor’s preference was to leave the decision in the hands of their players on the pitch with whoever felt most confident stepping up.

As the misses continued to wrack up with eight different players unable to break what felt like a never-ending curse, Douglas admits panic began to set in.

"The talk was 'I think there's a voodoo doll out on us' because I remember us talking about it in the changing room when had you ever heard of a team going on a run like we were on,” he added. “It wasn't pressure or anything like that, it was a bit of banter between the boys saying 'that's you off penalties, I'm on the next one' but when it kept continuing we didn't know what was going on.

"If you look at the list of players who missed, they were all good players. It's unbelievable really. You always wanted to get a penalty and if it happened today I'd be confident we're going to score it, but when we got a penalty then it was like panic stations that it was going to continue.

"If you think of missing six in two months, it got to the stage where it got in player's heads and we were wondering 'is there a jinx here?'.”

The statistic has resurfaced in recent days with Glentoran missing three in their last four Premiership matches – David Fisher, Jay Donnelly and most recently Finley Thorndike failing to convert for Declan Devine’s side.

Devine revealed after their latest miss against Larne last weekend that the Glens practice penalties everyday in training and it was a similar story for Bangor 23 years ago, who would take aim following each session.

"It wouldn't have been set up but you'd always have a few lads and a keeper stay behind after training to practice,” he recalled. “When you got a penalty you didn't really have a penalty taker at the time but it was just whoever felt confident would step up and have a go.

"When you got to our stage it was up to the manager who was hitting the next one! It's unheard of really."

The run of misery was ultimately ended by Andy Morrow in a 3-1 win over Ballyclare Comrades in August 2002 – almost two years after Millar’s original miss – bringing a halt to a record that we probably will never see the likes of again in the Irish League, or anywhere else for that matter.

"I forgot about it until I was reminded ahead of the interview and it just reignited the trauma!” joked Douglas. "When Andy McDonald used to give me banter, I didn't even remember it being eight penalties, he was more talking about mine.

“The fact it was eight different players shows it was amongst us in the group and who felt confident. There wasn't the same media then and social media wasn't a thing - if it has happened now there'd be a lot more pressure.

"I don't think I was at the club when Andy Morrow ended it - I think I would have remembered that! People say you're famous for five seconds of your life so we'll take that!"