Net-Minders Turned Net-Finders

Wednesday, 01 October 08, 11:49 AM · Comments(2)

by Stuart Gillespie

There's not a lot of content on YouTube relating to my team, St Johnstone. What? St Johnstone . . . Scottish team . . . First Division . . . come from Perth . . . no? Only team in Britain with a J in their name? See, you knew them.

One of those rare clips exemplifies my favourite situation in a football match. It's Matt Glennon, now of Huddersfield Town, scoring a last-gasp equaliser against Ross County that kept us in an ultimately fruitless promotion chase a few seasons back.

Nothing gets my heart pounding or brings a cheeky grin of expectation to my face more easily than when a goalkeeper comes up for a late corner. It's brilliant, and as a tactic for game-chasing teams should be used more often, if not made compulsory under the laws of the game.

There are a number of conclusions to such an episode, and I'm not sure which is the most satisfying. Seeing a keeper score is great, especially when, like Glennon's, it's a proper striker's finish rather than the my-face-means-nothing-to-me John Terry-style header that glovemen are more usually successful with.

But equally excellent, in a perverse way, is when the set-piece is cleared and you get to witness the four-on-one breakaway scenario with the goalkeeper haring back, breathing heavily from his first pitch-length dash, at the bottom of your television screen. I say television screen because if you're at the match it's likely to involve your team, in which case this sort of late drama is the last thing you want. Either you're facing a heartbreaking defeat, with all hopes resting on the imbecile who let in the crucial goal being able to cause some panic in the opposition defence, or you face the ultimate ignominy of having your glorious victory snatched away from you by someone who's only on the pitch in the first place because they're freakishly tall and don't mind being kicked in the head.

At all other times, though, goalkeepers doing things they shouldn't is the most joyous sight in the game. There's a long list of heroes in this field: Peter Schmeichel, Andres Palop, Jose Luis Chilavert, Paul Robinson, to name just a few. Stuart Pearce even stuck David James up front towards the end of one Man City game. Here was David bloody James, wearing an outfield jersey, actually running around and kicking the ball. Brilliant!

Anyway, I'll leave you with the ultimate goalkeeping, goalscoring hero: Sir Jimmy Glass.