Once is an exception, twice is precedent, thrice is a pattern.

Someone I used to know would repeat that so often I just figured the idiom had a provenance beyond him. Yet I can’t for the life of me find the source for it.

But you get the gist. Once or twice of something bad is survivable, but you don’t want to fall into a pattern with it.

I’m not sure where we’re at with penalties and whether we risk falling into a pattern.

In the past few games we’ve won two penalty calls. Akinfenwa stepped up to take both spot kicks. He missed them both.

I want to make clear that this is not a reflection of him as a footballer overall.

It’s worth noting that Leo Messi has missed four of his past seven penalties for Barcelona. No one’s going to tell him that maybe this football thing isn’t working out.

AFC Wimbledon: Is the Beast going to pay the penalty?

AFC Wimbledon: Tale of two penalties has Ardley asking questions of the referee

The Beast has been a massive addition to the squad. Without him, our season would look much, much different.

It’s not just his numbers— he has a knack for scoring important goals. Goals that start rallies. Goals that change games. Goals that make the opposition nervous.

I’m just wondering if maybe someone else could take the penalty next time.

Just once. Give Bayo some distance from the last two. Let him get those out of his system.

But maybe not. Humans are walking pattern recognition machines. Our brains are hard-wired to see patterns in everything, even if it’s not entirely warranted.

And two penalties do not exactly make a robust sample size to draw on.

But I’m also a football fan, and so are you. And we are, by and large, a fearful lot. So you’ll pardon my doubts.