CHRIS SUTTON: Fluffed penalty against France will haunt Harry Kane forever

You a***hole! I don’t mind telling you that was my reaction on Sunday when my Sportsmail colleague asked me about my missed penalty for Celtic in the 2005 Scottish Cup final.

No matter how hard you try to push those misses to the back of your mind, there’s always one tosspot who will bring them back to the fore. Harry Kane will discover that. He will be asked about — and haunted by — this penalty miss for the rest of his life.

I can still picture my 2005 miss now. How I slipped as I took my spot-kick. How I looked up to see Alan Thompson, who had just been substituted and was walking behind the goal, laughing at me.

How I did the old ‘check my studs’ routine after slipping on the turf at Hampden Park. Thankfully, Celtic went on to win. England didn’t, and that makes Kane’s miss so much worse for him.

He will be miserable today. And tomorrow. And when he sees Hugo Lloris back at Tottenham. And when he is given a sympathetic hug by Antonio Conte. And whenever he thinks about this moment as he is lying in bed.

Strikers remember the opportunities they missed as much as the ones they took. ITV commentator Sam Matterface said: ‘We needed Gary Lineker but we got Chris Waddle’. A tad harsh on Waddle that. These are the moments that can haunt a footballer’s career. Kane was right to want to take the second penalty against France.

He scored the first one brilliantly and he was confident he could do it again. I prefer Kane’s penalty-taking technique to the hop-and-skip approach that seems to be taking over football. Kane puts his foot through the ball. He goes for power and accuracy. The power was there, but sadly, the accuracy was not and England are out of the World Cup.

I don’t want to get into a courage debate because there are far more courageous jobs than being a goalscorer. But the pressure can get to any person. Even Kane. He’s only human and this isn’t the first time this has happened to him. Back in October, he scored a penalty against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Later in the game, when Tottenham were awarded a second spot-kick, he blazed it over the crossbar. But this one will hurt worse.

Had England beaten France, we had every chance of becoming world champions. If anyone has earned forgiveness for an erroneous penalty, it’s Kane. He has given so much to his country that this should not define his contribution in an England shirt.

It is only a matter of time before he becomes our all-time top goalscorer. Jimmy Greaves’s reign lasted three years (from October 3, 1964 to May 22, 1968). Sir Bobby Charlton’s reign lasted 47 years (from May 22, 1968 to September 8, 2015). Wayne Rooney’s reign currently stands at seven years (from September 8, 2015 to date). Kane will take over from Rooney soon enough and who knows how long his reign will last?

Kane missed a shot from 12 yards. That makes it sound so simple when, really, this was a moment that will haunt him for ever. All he can do is embrace the miss, own it, and if he ever becomes a newspaper columnist, don’t forget to call your colleague an a***hole for bringing it up!