|
The Best Goal I Have Ever Seen
|
|
Thinking of the good times.
|
By:
Eric Hitchmo
|
05/10/2011
|
|
|
|
RELATED
LINKS
<<< |
I'm not quite sure why, but on occasions I do find myself trawling through old Barnet videos saved on my computer for a bit of a nostalgic trip. It's hard to believe sometimes that it's been six years since we won the Conference. Some of you Barnet veterans may not define that as old and you may well dismiss some of the goals I'll mention for the likes of Frank Murphy's chip at home to Welling in 1991, or Gary Bull's swivel and volley at Fisher to send us up about a week later. Some of you may have been there to witness Jimmy Greaves' infamous story of his best ever goal, scored in Barnet colours "with only about 200 sods there to see it!".
Indeed, there are some great goals from around that time but as someone who only started attending in 2001, I can't really recall them, and with the added difficulty of being the author, I can only trawl through the last decade I'm afraid.
For the purpose of this article, I'll be drawing a line in the sand between best goal I've seen as opposed to my favourite goals. We all have our goals that we remember and love, even though they were pretty bog standard, every day tap-in type goals. Dean Sinclair scoring at Old Trafford for example, Ian Hendon's penalty against Burton Albion in 2004, Paul Furlong's delicious ball-guide to take us top at Northampton in 2009 (actually a bloody good goal too) or even Simon King's promotion clincher against Halifax Town.
Sometimes you may find that a goal ends up on both sides. Goals such as Giuliano Grazioli's guided volley from outside the box at Crawley, an outrageously good goal. Or Dean Sinclair's 30+ yard belter on that very same night where we continued to steamroller through all in front of us. How about Barry Cogan's screamer at Hartlepool which led to a spontaneous and very expensive night out. Everyone has their own goal memories. Perhaps a Ben Strevens tap-in sometime in 2001 won you a bet, we all have reasons for which we can point out why it is our favourite. I could be here all night going through my favourite goals, but for now I'm just going to look at the best I've seen, the ones that with Premiership level exposure, millions would talk about for years. Maybe the fact it hasn't had such exposure makes it that little more special to us. How sentimental.
I could just go through the BFCSA Goal Of The Season awards as a starting point, though that award appeared to go on a silly run when somehow Ashley Carew's fluke at home Chesterfield on the opening day of 2008-2009 won it. I mean, if he meant it...! There are some crackers on there though, Nicky Bailey's curling effort on live telly at home to Dagenham in 2004 was the pick of a very large bunch that season. So good that David Beckham decided to replicate it some hours later in a World Cup qualifier versus Wales. That goal beat off the likes of the two Crawley goals mentioned above. Grazioli's name will crop up again when I mention Halifax away. Not the quickest man in the world, he latched onto a long ball over the top, saw his opportunity and buried an unstoppable volley from 30 yards into the net. Unbelievable. It was a goal that falls into the best/favourite pile as it turned round a 2-0 deficit in dreamy circumstances at The Shay. Another in the same pile from the same season would be Simon King's goal at Aldershot. A centre back volleying a ball sweetly into the corner from twenty yards out, the winning goal with less than ten minutes to play. Oh how life was so sweet at that time. The list goes on. What about Casual Duane Lee with his volley off the underside of the bar at home to York City? I also loved the flowing moves that led to our goal away at Scarborough and the third at Gravesend & Northfleet. So many goals. So many to choose from.
If we were to go back a bit further in time, one goal sticks very clear in the mind, and that was Ben Strevens' overhead kick away to The Chavs in 2002. It's one that unfortunately never made it onto any sort of video or online forum, but the memory is so vivid. The cross coming in from the right, Strevens shaping himself and overhead-ing it past the despairing lunge of the home keeper. Nuts! Stick that one in the favourites pile too! That goal was beaten to the crown by Toby Oshitola's goal at home to Telford, a strike which I personally missed. Was it any good? People have told me it was and who am I to doubt them? The year previous, another volleyed goal won it, and that was Mark Gower's in the demolition of Dagenham & Redbridge at Underhill. Goodness that was an awfully long time ago, I still remember these things like they were yesterday.
Since our return to the Football League, goals have been a bit harder to come by though, but that hasn't stopped a few gems creeping in here and there. We were treated to a few in the first few months of the return though, I remember Nicky Bailey's individual effort at Northampton being of the highest quality, as well as being a 90th minute winner at our end. Simon King threw in another silly volley at home to Plymouth in the League Cup, and not even an hour later, Giuliano Grazioli chipped a beauty agonisingly over the outstretched hand of the visiting goalkeeper. It was a night of great goals actually. Akos Buszaky's equaliser was the perfect free kick. You don't save those. Tresor Kandol signed and smashed in a volley (recurring theme here?) on his debut against Shrewsbury as well.
An obviously missing name so far is Jason Puncheon. He was incapable of scoring goals that were not memorable. In his two seasons with the club from 2006-2008, he opened his own collection of goalscoring mastery. The obvious starting point is that goal against Colchester in the third round of the FA Cup. He unleashed a rocket from his left boot into the North Terrace net that was never going anywhere but in. Trust me I was right behind it. His revenge shot to former boss Danny Wilson against Hartlepool to halt their promotion charge was outstanding. He tricked and jinked his way into a shooting position before smashing an unstoppable drive low into the corner. Free kicks at home to Bradford and Dagenham further underlined his talent with that left foot. However, his crowning glory came on a Friday night trip to Shrewsbury, just before Christmas in 2006. Who in their right mind would travel? Well, I did, it was the last game we would play at the fantastic Gay Meadow ground. The last goal I would see there was amazing. A bit of head tennis in the box fell to Puncheon twenty-five yards from goal. He steadied himself with a touch on the knee and though it didn't sit perfectly, he managed to shape his body to pull off an outrageously volley that flew into the far corner in front of us. Unbridled joy behind the goal as we were all sent running around in different directions on that rickety old terrace. Truly magic. Is it any wonder he plays in the Premier League now?
There have been many outstanding goals that I have mentioned, and probably plenty that I have missed as well. There is though one clear goal that will always be my first contender for the best goal I have ever seen, and if anyone matches it, they must be some sort of genius.
His name has cropped up a few times, but it's time for Nicky Bailey to once again be mentioned. He will take the glory for the finest piece of outrageous solo skill I have ever seen a Barnet player produce, and for the 133 of us who witnessed it that evening down in Bristol, it will be unforgettable. Of course, I am talking about the goal that won the award for the Goal Of The Season in 2005/2006. Nicky Bailey at Bristol City. I remember it so, so vividly.
A harmless ball in the corner was being held up by Richie Graham, when Bailey decided that he would go and fetch it. Injecting a bit of pace into the play, he advanced away from one futile tackle, and quickly another. Approaching the box, he jinked past a third, and a fourth, and it looked like he would be on to shoot. The crowd screamed as such, but he took another touch around another effort to block and calmly slotted the ball into the corner with his left foot, with a nonchalance that smacked of class. Once I had taken several minutes to fathom what I had just seen, I immediately proclaimed it the finest goal I had ever seen, and to this day it remains so.
Nicky Bailey, take a bow.
|
|
|
All Articles By This Author:
Other Articles By Category
|