Look away, Joe Hart! Richard Wright's nightmare England debut vs Malta

Wright is beaten from the spot via the back of his own head
Getty Images
Standard Sport1 September 2017

Joe Hart is under pressure like never before to keep hold of the England No.1 jersey, though Malta should not prove too much trouble for West Ham's loanee goalkeeper tonight.

But spare a thought for Richard Wright, who endured a nightmare Three Lions debut against the archipelago way back in 2000 as he gave away not one, but two penalties during a dramatic victory.

Martin Keown had put England ahead with a header from a David Beckham cross after 22 minutes to set up what looked like being a routine victory for the Three Lions.

However, Wright suffered the first of many rushes of blood just six minutes later as he misjudged a long ball to bring down David Carabott and concede a penalty.​

Carabott sent the keeper the wrong way from 12 yards, but the spot-kick was ordered to be retaken. Wright had a chance at redemption, but might have wished the original strike stood as Carabott's next effort rebounded off the post onto the keeper's head for an own goal.

England eventually wore down Malta's resistance as Emile Heskey added a second for the Three Lions 15 minutes from time, but Carabott had a golden chance to earn a draw late on.

Wright was once again rash off his line to concede a spot-kick for a foul with two minutes remaining, but went from zero to hero as Carabott's effort down the middle rattled off Wright's legs to safety.

The then-Ipswich keeper then made an even better save a minute later as he parried another one-on-one effort as Malta missed out on a memorable draw.

Despite a near-disastrous international debut, Wright went on to earn a move to Arsenal at the end of the season - but left a year later for first-team football at Everton.

And while Wright's international opportunities were limited to just the two caps, his final outing proved better on a personal note as he conceded no goals after coming on during a 2-0 friendly defeat against Netherlands in 2001.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in