About
The goals to choose from
The countdown
The goals that got away
Goals 50 to 34
Goals 33 to 21
Goals 20 to 11
10: Brolly v Everton
9: Macca v Rushden
8: Oster v Sheff Weds
7: Cockerill v Huddersfield
6: Bonetti v WBA
5: Wilkinson v Everton
4: JPK v Spurs
3: Dobbin v Newcastle
2: Burnett v Bournemouth
1: Jevons v Liverpool
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9 October 2001 – Phil Jevons, v Liverpool
Boyhood Liverpool fan strikes an extra-time winner from 35 yards at Anfield
Somehow we all knew that this goal would top the poll. Indeed, I was one of the 60 per cent of voters who chose to tick the box next to Jevons' name, but I had to think about it: was it too obvious a choice?
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Some who selected this in their top five really went overboard, but let's calm down a bit. Was it really that good a goal? Certainly Town played well, and perhaps deserved some sort of reward, especially considering that Liverpool hadn't been patronising with their team selection. I'd heard of their whole team, even the subs: Carragher, Barmby, Heskey, Redknapp... Measure that against Town's bunch of misfits in Gallimore, Butterfield, Campbell, Chapman, and Jonny Rowan starting up front. The Mariners were a pale imitation of the '97-98 heroes who'd last visited Anfield. However, where Buckley's pretty passing team capitulated, this side were not going to let Liverpool have their own way. Pretty it was not, but effective it was, and at full time it was 0-0.
In extra time, McAllister's penalty had been cancelled out by Broomes' scramble, and we were heading for penalties. There were seconds left, and Jevons took a chance, running down the wing, juggling the ball once, twice, before letting fly.... of course, everyone knows the shot was a bit lucky, but let's not be too Grimsbyish about it, eh. It was an actual shot, and it bloody well went in. I saw it in slow motion as it happened, and a hundred times on my highlights tape the following day. I can still hear the commentator now: "JevooooooOOONNNNSSSSSS! OHHHHHHH!"
So have we all been to Specsavers, and got a free pair of rose-tinted to accompany our standard Grimsby shit-tinted glasses? Surely we should dwell on the fact that this fairytale moment was the only reason for joy in an otherwise utterly dismal half-season.
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I could point out that, as well as being a bit of a fluke, this was the last good thing Phil Jevons did for the Mariners, despite being on the books a further 32 months. In fact, if I want to scratch at the surface further, I could accuse him of keeping Lennie Lawrence in his job – the envelope containing Lennie's P45 was surely being licked, but after Anfield he was given another 15 games. Town didn't win a single one of them, and such was the state he left the team in, Town only just scraped the required 50 points that season.
Yes, there may be good reasons for harumphing Phil Jevons' goal out of this top 50 altogether, but it's not about the goal itself. It's about that moment in time, jumping with joy, hugging my friends in a very un-British way, standing in dumb disbelief outside Anfield for fifteen minutes afterwards, and about waking up the next morning smiling.
Miles Moss
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