Member Article

Fans hit the spot with 24-hour penalty shoot-out challenge for Ikeme

Wolverhampton Wanderers fans are being urged to emulate their footballing heroes by taking part in a 24-hour penalty shoot-out.

The challenge, which is being put together by lifelong fan and ‘They Wore The Shirt’ author Steve Plant, will look to raise more than £10,000 for Cure Leukaemia after Wolves No1 Carl Ikeme was diagnosed with the condition last month.

Held inside Molineux, the event will be opened by goalscoring legend Steve Bull at 10am on Friday August 4th and will run until 10am the following day when Middlesbrough visit to kick-start the 2017/18 season.

Supporters can donate £5 to take three spot kicks, with a number of special guests set to take part over the 24 hours and ‘on-the-spot’ prizes for the best finishes, trick shots and saves.

‘Top Bins’ are also being fitted ‘Soccer Am’ style and anyone nestling the ball in one of these will be awarded a certificate and placed in the draw to take a penalty at half-time during a future Wolverhampton Wanderers fixture.

“Carl has been at Wolves for more than 14 years, starting off as a young lad at Molineux,” explained Steve Plant.

“He’s one of our own and was one of the first players to have a copy of the book I wrote; that’s why the news hit me so hard and spurred me on to do something to help.”

He continued: “We are hoping more than 500 fans will take part over the 24-hours and we expect more than 2000 penalties to be taken. It’s open to all ages…just come along and see if you can put the ball in the net like your heroes Richards, Doogan, Bull, Keane and Dicko have done in the past.”

So far 100 supporters have signed up to take part in the penalty competition, which will take place in Wolfie’s Den at Molineux.

All you have to do to secure your three penalties is text CARL24 £5 to 70070 and bring your text receipt with you. There will also be the option to pay on the day, but priority will go to those that have text in.

Following the recent announcement that Middlesbrough Academy player Anthony Renton is also suffering from Leukaemia, the decision has been made to open up the challenge to Boro supporters travelling to Molineux.

Ryan Leister, one of a team of volunteers supporting Steve, concluded: “As supporters, we always think we could do a job on the pitch so here’s a perfect opportunity to prove it whilst raising money for a great cause.

“Judging from social media there are already a number of challenges brewing and we know there will be some high profile head-to-heads. We want people to capture these and get involved on Facebook and through twitter, the latter using #pens4kemes. There is even talk of a live 24-hour Periscope feed to catch all of the action.”

The penalty shoot-out challenge, which is being sponsored by Alliance Commercial Finance and B&D Tyres, will be followed by a fun-day on September 2nd, between 12 and 6pm.

It will be held in the WV1 Bar at Molineux and will feature a host of Wolves players from the 70s to the present day, including Kenny Hibbitt, John Richards and members of the current squad.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .