Cod Almighty | Diary

Mentalist

10 August 2016

Last night was one of those times as a Town fan when the result matters least. For all that the summer has thrown up one pratfall after another behind the scenes, our cockles will stay warm for some time from the showing from visiting players and fans at Pride Park. Indeed, when a thumping header was saved by Scott Carson right at the end, your original/regular Diary was only a bit sad that the Mariners had been denied extra time, but devastated that I'd been denied the sight of a GTFC goalkeeper scoring a goal.

This got me thinking about other goalscoring phenomena that you could only expect to witness perhaps once in a lifetime. I wasn't there when Jim Dobbin scored that goal at Newcastle in 1992, though I had seen John Cockerill net directly from a corner in 1988. I was denied the pleasure of witnessing Paul Futcher score his (I think) only goal in Grimsby colours, but hey, it was a lot of fun at Molineux when Andy Todd completely buggered up Wolves' cruise to promotion. And after contriving to miss the Mariners stick seven goals past Mansfield and Stockport during our first couple of years in non-League, at least I made it along in 2014 when we smacked the same number past Alfreton.

What once-in-a-lifetime goalscoring phenomena have you witnessed, or missed out on, readers? A medal for everyone who was at Hartlepool that time.

Speaking of which, did you notice that not only did Hartlepool field both Toto Nsiala and Padraig Amond last Saturday, and Carl Magnay, but they also chucked in Rob Jones and some kid we had on loan six years ago from King$ton Communication$ FC? I didn't. Tony Butcher had to tell me. Rumour has it that the basement below Craig Hignett's office is covered in pictures of Andy Carr. See you next time.