Taylor willing to take penalty plunge
Neil Taylor says he is willing to take a penalty and exorcise his Olympic demons should Wales' Euro 2016 showdown against Northern Ireland be settled by spot-kicks.
The Wales defender was part of the Great Britain side which lost to South Korea in a penalty shoot-out in the quarter-finals at London 2012.
But, having scored his first goal for six years in Wales' 3-0 victory over Russia on Monday night, Taylor says he has no qualms over stepping up at the Parc des Princes to take a spot-kick if needed.
"I've only taken them on the training ground, or on FIFA," Taylor said about the prospect of penalties in Paris on Saturday.
"But I think everybody has to put their hands up for a penalty.
"You have to be willing to take one in a tournament, you have to do it for your team.
"We've obviously got more specialists in the team than me.
"But if it comes to it, it might take 10 penalties before it's decided."
Rewind four years and Taylor was in Stuart Pearce's GB side which were going for Olympic gold on home soil.
They had fought their way through the group stages but, after Taylor's Wales team-mate Aaron Ramsey had scored and missed a penalty in normal time in the Cardiff quarter-final, South Korea prevailed in a spot-kick contest.
"It was cruel. I remember South Korea taking the best penalties I've ever seen in any tournament," said Taylor.
"I actually spoke to Ki (Sung-yueng) when he moved to Swansea, and he said that South Korea were playing for penalties because they knew how good they were at them.
"We were good at them as well. But you can practice as much as you want, when it comes to the actual game the keeper might go the right way or he might not.
"And that determines whether it's a good penalty or not.
"I've obviously had that experience, the disappointment of it, and I hope it doesn't happen again."
Taylor's Euro 2016 experience in France has been a far different story.
When he smashed home Wales' second goal in Toulouse, it was the Swansea full-back's first goal since he scored for former club Wrexham against Grays in the Conference in April 2010.
But his focus is very much on what is in front of this Wales team, and not behind them.
"The game (against Northern Ireland) comes after probably the right amount of time," said Taylor.
"If it was a day earlier it would probably be coming a bit soon, after three games in 10 days, and any longer you couldn't wait for it.
"The Russia game played out exactly how we wanted it to after the disappointment of losing to England.
"We wanted to perform first and we felt that if we did that the result would come.
"Thankfully both went hand in hand and now we have to build on that."