Goal!

In football it’s an old saying that goals win games. How many times have you seen a game where one team has all the possession but fails to score and the other team has one chance, takes it and wins the game. Some games are like this but sometimes late winning goals are much more significant.

One such game occurred on May 26th 1989 when Liverpool played Arsenal to be First Division champions. It was a game between first and second with Arsenal three points behind Liverpool and needing to win by two clear goals to become champions. Liverpool needed a draw or a win to become champions. At 90 minutes Arsenal were leading 1-0 which was enough to hand Liverpool the title.

However, after a Liverpool attack breaks down the Arsenal goalkeeper throws the ball to Dixon who sends a long pass to Smith who passes the ball on to Michael Thomas who charges into the Liverpool penalty area. Thomas waits for the Liverpool goalkeeper to commit himself to a save and Thomas lifts the ball into the net. The Liverpool ground exploded into chaotic celebrations. Arsenal scored their second goal at 90+2 minutes thereby winning the game and becoming First Division champions for 1988-1989 season.

Michael Thomas winning the 1989 League Championship for Arsenal at Anfield

Some say the significance of this game was that it rescued English football from the misery of football hooliganism, the Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies and paved the way for the formation of the Premier League three years later in 1992.

Another such game was the 1999 Champions League final in Barcelona between Bayern Munich and Manchester United. Going into the game United were on course to win the Treble as they were already Premier League champions and had won the FA Cup as well. However, in the final after 90 minutes, United were 1-0 down and 3 minutes of time were added on. United had a corner which Beckham sent into the Bayern penalty area. This was poorly cleared and Giggs sent the ball back into the Bayern goal area where substitute Teddy Sheringham put the ball in to the Bayern net.

The goal was timed at 36 seconds into injury time. Thirty seconds after the restart United forced another corner which Beckham sent into the Bayern penalty area finding the head of Teddy Sheringham who nodded the ball across the face of the goal. The second United substitute Solskjaer reacted quickest and prodded the ball into the back of the Bayern net. The second United goal was scored with 43 seconds of the game remaining.

Many of the Bayern players were so distraught to have lost the game in such a fashion that they could hardly restart the game. Shortly after the game was over, United were European champions and became the first English club to achieve the Treble, winning the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup in the same season. The Treble winners also confirmed their domination of English football winning their last Premier title in 2013 when manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired from the game after 26 trophy laden years.

Manchester United, European Champions and treble winners in 1999

Perhaps the most famous and iconic game in Premiership history occurred when Manchester City played Queens Park Rangers (QPR) at home on Sunday 13th May 2012. City went in to the final match on the final day of the season as Premiership leaders from arch-rivals Manchester United on goal difference. Manchester United were playing away at Sunderland. City needed to match or better United’s result at Sunderland. Additionally, QPR needed a draw to escape relegation from the Premiership.

As luck would have it, QPR were leading 2-1 after 90 minutes and there were 5 minutes of added time to play. Despite nearly constant pressure, QPR hung on until the second minute of added time when a Silva corner was headed in by the City striker Edin Dzeko headed to make it 2-2. By this point news came through that results elsewhere meant QPR were safe from relegation but also that United had beaten Sunderland and as things stood United were going to be league champions. City needed to another goal to become champions.

In the 94th minute City forward Balotelli despite being on the ground passed a ball to striker Sergio Aguero who ran further into the QPR penalty area and unleashed a savage shot that flew into the back of the QPR goal. The Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler roared simply “Aguerooooo” as the ball hit the back of the net and the stadium erupted into emotional chaos. City had won their first Premiership title and won their first league championship in 44 years under manager Roberto Mancini.

"Aguerooooo" winning the 2012 League Championship for Manchester City

The significance of this game, and this goal in particular, is that City under new manager Pep Guardiola from 2016 would go on to dominate the English game. Since 2016 City and Guardiola have won 18 major trophies including winning the Treble of the Premier League, the FA Cup and the European Champions League in 2021 equalling Manchester United’s Treble in 1999. City are only the second English club to complete the Treble.

GOAL!

Five minutes left to play
two goals down are they
going to throw it all away

Come on, come on, we need
a goal, just one more goal
to ease our aching desperate soul

A loose ball, a bad clearance
it’s in the back of the net, it’s
called perseverance

Three minutes left, keep on
Up the attack, no holding back
just pressure, pressure, pressure

Bad tackles, desperate defending
the noise is unrelenting, just hit the
shot, give it all you’ve got

Aguerooooo!


With thanks to Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler for the iconic “Agueroooo”.

And thank you to you for reading. Please leave a comment as they are always appreciated.

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Growing Pains - Our Back Bedroom

 On Saturday morning I was upstairs in the spare back bedroom doing some ironing. Whoever is in charge of programme scheduling on BBC Radio 2 has shifted Sounds of the ‘60s to the ridiculous time slot of 6 a.m. until 8 a.m., so I’ve missed it. Instead of singing along to the Hollies, Marmalade, Love Affair and others who provided the comforting music of my younger days, I enjoyed the peace and quiet, alone with my thoughts.

I thought about the many make-overs the room had under gone with various occupants over the years. It was our room once. Magnolia emulsion on woodchip, Artex textured ceiling and I think it was a stripey carpet. We moved into the newly decorated front bedroom and, as children were our regular guests, we furnished this back room with bunk beds and made it a home for some of my teddy bears.

A nephew, about six years old, kept waking up with a headache one night. I sat with him, bucket at the ready for the inevitable sickness, and hoped his distress wouldn’t disturb his younger sister, our niece, who slept peacefully in the next room.

Our son arrived. He had the tiny boxroom at first. He had night terrors when he was a toddler until he was about four. It gave me terrors of my own when disturbed by his screaming. I would dash into his room to find him sitting up staring at something only he could see. He soon calmed down with a reassuring cuddle. Before he started school, we moved him into the back bedroom, now decorated in bright colours, mainly yellow and with a theme of cartoon style zoo animals. A few years later, while he was away at Cub Camp, we re-vamped his room with a Manchester United theme as a surprise to come home to. He loved it and was even more delighted, as we all were when Manchester United won the treble that season.

Our daughter arrived and the boxroom was suitably freshened up. When she was a little girl she suffered dreadful leg cramps. The pain made her cry and sometimes disturbed her sleep. By the time she was about eight, our son had moved into another room and she was resident in the back bedroom, now Barbie themed with bright pink curtains and sparkly pink painted walls. I would sit on her bed in this pink paradise, massaging ‘magic cream’ moisturiser into the offending leg hoping to relive the pain as we waited for the double dose of Calpol Junior to take effect. Growing pains, the doctor said.

Growing pains, whatever form they take, are the hardest pains of all. It’s the adolescent boundary pushing, teenage angst, tearful tantrums that is all part of growing up and discovering who we are and who we want to be, or think we want to be that I found the most challenging; both as a parent and with memories of my own teens.

In more recent years, our daughter and her boyfriend shared this room until they moved to their own place. Our son and his girlfriend made it home for a while and re-decorated it beautifully in brown and taupe, painting over the graffiti that I’d accepted was someone’s freedom of expression. This time last year they also found their own place.

This lovely, large back bedroom that holds so many memories is a spare room again. And there’s a cot now as our grandchildren are overnight guests. Our adult children are raising their own families and experiencing the next generation of growing pains.

I put the iron down for a moment and glanced through the window. I noticed the gentleman across the back was sitting out in the sun, newspaper and morning coffee to hand. Good idea.

This poem always reminds me of our son’s night terrors.

 

A Child Half-Asleep by Tony Connor

 

Stealthily parting the small-hours silence,
A hardly-embodied figment of his brain
Comes down to sit with me
As I work late.

Flat-footed, as though his legs and feet

Were still asleep.

He sits on a stool,

Staring into the fire,
His dummy dangling.

Fire ignites the small coals of his eyes.

It stares back through the holes
Into his head, into the darkness.

I ask what woke him?

‘A wolf dreamed me’ he says.

 Thanks for reading, Pam x

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