With Julio Enciso winning the Premier League Goal of the Season recently, for his fantastic strike against Manchester City, Spencer Vignes looks back at a selection of the best Albion strikes from the past and selects his own top five from the vaults…
It's still there, lodged in the front row of my Albion memory banks. And it will stay there till I draw my very last. Running onto a through ball on a Friday night at the Goldstone Ground in April 1990, on- loan Albion striker and cult hero Sergei Gotsmanov off held off the attentions of a backtracking Hull City defender, drew the visiting goalkeeper, rounded him, switched the ball from his left to right boot, raised his arms to the heavens in celebration of the goal to come, and swept a shot beyond the last man on the line to secure a 2-0 win. Cheeky, yeah, borderline arrogant in fact, but oh my word, was it brilliant. Even Jimmy Greaves, one of the best strikers of all time, had trouble comprehending what he'd seen. “That's a classic goal, give that man a lager,” said the former Spurs and England great as footage of Gotsmanov’s greatness played out the following day on ITV's Saint and Greavsie show.
Goals like Gotsmanov’s don't come along every day. In fact, you're lucky to get one every three or four seasons. But when they do, well, they remain talking points for decades to come. I'm on about the kind of goals that Brazil used to score in the Seventies and Eighties. Goals that deserve to be hung on the wall of a Paris art gallery surrounded by tripwire and men in dark glasses.
Goals of the sort that Bobby Zamora scored away against Bury on 1st December 2001, running with the ball from inside his own half before lofting it high over the advancing keeper with a chip you just didn't see coming. Or Mark Lawrenson's mazy dribble in an FA Cup tie against Wolves at the Goldstone back in January 1979, finished off with a low shot past Paul Bradshaw. Or Gerry Ryan opening up the Manchester City midfield and defence like a can opener at home later the same year, dispatching the ball past Joe Corrigan (itself no mean feat) with the outside of his right boot. They say Bob McNichol’s 40-yard shot against the then Football League champions Burnley in the fourth round of the 1960/61 FA Cup would still be travelling if it hadn't had a net to stop it.
People, especially men of a certain age, make lists. Anyone who has read or seen the movie adaptation of High Fidelity will tell you that. So what, if push came to shove, would be my desert island, all-time, top-five most memorable classy Albion goals? Well, Lawro would have to be there, probably at five, followed by Gerry at four. Sergei would make three for sheer cheek as much as skill. Which brings us to, as veteran DJ Tony Blackburn would say, the terrific two.
On the afternoon of 14 November 1987, Garry Nelson, standing inside his own half, stole the ball off Brentford’s Keith Jones in an FA Cup second-round tie at Griffin Park. He turned and made for goal, jinking this way and that, beating player after player. I swear at one point that he took the ball out through one turnstile, round a bus station, across a succession of gardens, and back in through another turnstile – although I may be making that bit up. Anyway, having beaten seven players (two of them twice), eventually Nelson’s radar informed him that he was close enough to goal to get a shot away.
“I just remember hitting it really, really true, seeing it fly in the back of the neck, and our crowd behind that goal – of which there was a lot – going absolutely crazy,” said Nelson when he and I last recalled the Miracle of Griffin Park. “I think the only frustration on my part is that if it had been caught on camera by Match of the Day, then it might have made their Top 50 FA Cup moments!”
Match of the Day was on hand, however, to capture the strike which, in my humble opinion, ranks as number one. It happened at the Goldstone on 29 March 1980. European Cup holders Nottingham Forest were the opposition and the game was heading towards a goalless draw when Gary Stevens stole possession from Trevor Francis. The ball was worked to Brian Horton who, in turn, found Peter O'Sullivan. ‘Sully’ made giant strides down the left flank and fed Peter Ward, standing seven or eight yards outside of Forest’s penalty area. Ward turned, taking a couple of steps with the ball, before opting to lay it into the path of Albion left-back Gary Williams. ‘Willow’ took one touch to steady himself before unleashing a thunderous left-foot drive from 30 yards which tore past Peter Shilton, probably the best goalkeeper in the world at the time.
Afterwards, Forest manager Brian Clough called it “an absolute fluke”. Mr Clough, it was nothing of the kind. For overall team involvement, the class of the opposition and the finish, that's the one for me. No question.