LEICESTER will be relieved they are not up against Great Britain Olympic hero Maddie Hinch today.
The Foxes, who host Crystal Palace, were made to look silly when the women’s hockey keeper wrecked their reputation as penalty kings.
Premier League champs Leicester were challenged by the gold-medal ace — nicknamed Mad Dog — to a hockey shootout at their training base. And they came up well short.
Hinch’s GB team-mate Helen Richardson-Walsh, who tried to coach the Foxes in hockey penalties, gave her brutal verdict on them: “Don’t quit the day job, lads!”
Last season Leicester scored ten out of 13 spot-kicks as they romped to a shock title win.
But they could only manage four out of nine against the West Sussex-born lass — and even then it emerged she LET a few in to raise their spirits.
Hinch, who saved all four penalties in a 2-0 shootout final win against Holland in Rio, admitted: “I was kind of told quietly by one of the organisers to give them a chance!”
Foxes trio Marc Albrighton, Danny Simpson and Christian Fuchs had three penalties each.
Albrighton was the best of a bad bunch, beating Hinch twice, while Simpson and Fuchs got one apiece.
But the former Leicester Hockey Club keeper, 28, laughed: “Christian was full of himself before we started. He had all the chat — but that was all he had! I let him get one though!”
Albrighton, 26, laughed: “I don’t think Christian will be taking a penalty any time soon!
“It’s been a good laugh with the two girls coming to the training ground and giving us a few tutorials on how to hit the ball, dribble and execute shots.
“I played hockey once or twice in PE at school but that was a very, very long time ago.
How they rated
GB hockey star Helen Richardson-Walsh gives SunSport the lowdown on just how Leicester’s Premier League champs fared with a hockey stick as they went from spot-kick kings to penalty pushovers…
ALBRIGHTON
Mark’s technique was probably the best and he got two past Maddie. No mean feat but she was helping out a bit! 6/10
SIMPSON
OK for a beginner. Danny tried a few little skills but couldn’t finish it off. Good ideas but could not, execute them. 5
FUCHS
SORRY but Christian was bottom of the pile. I tipped him to win and he was cocky — but his technique let him down. 4
“I was top scorer with two goals but Maddie was taking it lightly.
“You could tell she wasn’t putting her all into it like we were. She was helping us out to make us feel good about ourselves.”
Fuchs, 30, even returned the favour by donning the keeper pads to face football penalties — but he proved not much good at that either as both girls beat him with ease!
The Leicester stars can be forgiven for not knowing a flat slap and Indian dribble.
But, thankfully, Hinch and Richardson-Walsh did not have to explain the offside rule — because in hockey there isn’t one!
Yet Richardson-Walsh, 36, revealed: “It was a challenge to teach Christian how to hold the stick.
“He insisted on holding it with his right hand at the top and left lower down. But you can only play hockey right handed. It was quite funny.
“Beating Maddie at the best of times is no easy task so he soon changed it to the right way.”
But despite failing to come out on top against the GB superhero — in the event organised by sponsors BetStars — Richardson-Walsh did at least give the Foxes trio some credit.
She said: “You could see them all improve on each go, trying to come up with plans, which is basically what we do.
“We try to take the keeper one way and send the shot the other.
“They were starting to do that but they couldn’t get the ball past Maddie!
“The execution let them down.”
Leicester go into today’s match at the King Power Stadium boosted by their third Champions League win on the bounce on Tuesday night against Copenhagen.
The 1-0 success took the club to within one victory of qualifying for the knockout stages.
It is in stark contrast to a disappointing start to their Premier League title defence — where they have won just two of their opening eight games.
But Albrighton admitted the main focus is on Europe, with the chances of being in the top four always a massive ask.
He said: “It’s going to be difficult and is proving tough because teams are coming here and thinking, ‘Wow, these are the champions and they all want to beat us — and are definitely raising their games.
“We knew this would happen and must find a solution to make sure it doesn’t happen.
“Last season was something special — it was a one in a million chance. Now we just make sure we don’t fall down because we’ve built good foundations. We don’t have the expectations and pressure that an Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea have.
“The truth of it is we probably won’t win the Premier League again. But you don’t win the Premier League if you’re not a good side.
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“And the Champions League is massive and prestigious.
“To be a part of that and winning games against some of Europe’s top clubs is fantastic.
“Doing well in that competition is just the icing on the cake — and we want to go as far in it as we can.”
Leicester were the masters of the counter-attack last season but Albrighton said: “We’ve got to realise that, in games where we’re not the underdogs, the onus is on us to break teams down.”
His former Aston Villa team-mate Christian Benteke will be leading the Palace line this afternoon.
And he said: “Christian works hard and was fantastic at Villa. He kept them in the Premier League almost on his own when he was there and thoroughly deserved his move to Liverpool.
“It didn’t work out for him but now I am happy he got his move to Palace. I am sure he will come out of this season having scored a large amount of goals.
“One of his strengths is he will score you goals and he did that at Aston Villa.
“I wish him all the best and want him to do well like he did at Villa — although, please Christian, not until after this weekend.”
LEICESTER City players were taking part in the BetStars #Callit Hockey Challenge. BetStars are the Official Betting partner of Leicester City Football Club.
For more videos from the day visit facebook.com/BetStars or follow on twitter @BetStars
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