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‘Goal of the century’: Footballer celebrates by swimming on the pitch as fans go wild for bizarre strike in freak downpour (VIDEO)

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‘Goal of the century’: Footballer celebrates by swimming on the pitch as fans go wild for bizarre strike in freak downpour (VIDEO)

Football fans have heralded a 'goal of the season' in torrential rain conditions which saw a player finally finish his team's move and then celebrate by swimming on a waterlogged pitch in England.

The eventual successful effort occurred in the 94th minute of a clash in League One – the third tier of professional football in England – between Plymouth Argyle and visitors Bolton Wanderers.

Already leading 2-0 thanks to early goals from Brendan Galloway and Conor Grant within 15 minutes, the home side went for broke in the dying seconds trying to kill off the game. 

As Bolton's Alex Baptiste poorly tried to exchange short passes with a teammate around the halfway line, Plymouth's Danny Mayor saw from a mile off that he could intercept and knocked the ball around the hapless defender while heading towards goal. 

Then, in a clip viewed almost two million times in less than half a day, Mayor can be seen coolly chipping the ball over goalkeeper Joe Dixon, with nothing but grass between him and the finish line.

Unfortunately for the winger, though, the pitch was so soaked that the ball got stuck in a puddle. 

When another Plymouth player, Ryan Hardie, also had a go, the striker found himself similarly held up by the conditions as Bolton defenders knocked him to the ground.

Third time lucky, on-loan midfielder Ryan Broom was in the perfect place to smash the ball home into the top corner to send the Home Park crowd into raptures.

The resulting celebrations have proved just as popular as the strike itself and the exhausting build-up.

One after the other, a pack of six Argyle stars took turns in taking front chest dives through the water towards the corner flag before pumping up their fans even further.

With the win, Plymouth reached the summit of League One on 29 points – though second-place Sunderland are just one behind with two games in hand.

Bolton manager Ian Evatt wasn't best pleased. "It’s farcical but what’s frustrating, from my perspective, is we’re still trying to play short on a pitch where the ball’s not even moving or rolling.

"I can’t for the life of me think why we’re not communicating to play longer and recognize that.

"That’s down to naivety, but as I said, it’s been a tough week or 10 days of really difficult results and performances – but that doesn’t make us a bad team."

One disbelieving onlooker in similar disbelief asked "how the hell" the match could continue in such conditions, being told that play was probably allowed to go on because the game was already deep into injury time.

Fans of the feat, meanwhile, branded it "beautiful" and the "goal of the century".

In the Plymouth dugout, manager Ryan Lowe would have been pleased if Mayor had notched for the first time since February, but also stressed that it wasn't important who finished the comical move.

"I was hoping Danny would score," he said. "He's in good spirits, to be fair, but it would have been nice for him to get a goal – at that end as well [where the home fans congregate].

"When he misses it, then Ryan takes over and you think he can get another goal in the charts, and then he misses it.

"Then you are thinking 'Okay, who's next?' and Broomy pops up. Look, the pitch late on was a little bit of a problem for both teams but I thought we were in the ascendancy and just kept trying to go and go.

"If Danny had got that third it would have been good for him but it doesn't matter who scores. We have got it and we have won 3-0."

Others picked up on the "paddy" thrown by Mayor, though, at the water stopping him from scoring, and posted a still photo questioning why he didn't "smash it in" when afforded the perfect opportunity.

"In these conditions, the best strategy is just to run behind your teammate if he's got the ball, and take it when he runs past it," one analyst noted.

"I love how the player who actually scores is pretty much on the halfway line when the 'keeper is rounded," said another.

Broom, whose parent club is second-tier Peterborough, laughed on social media after some deemed his strike the "greatest goal of all time" and claimed it should be nominated for the Puskas Award.

"Massive win tonight," enthused the Welshman afterwards. "Fans were immense, even in those conditions."

Hardie shared footage of the action and joked: "From stealing the goal to getting the goal stolen. Great assist for [Broom] – massive three points in them conditions."

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