Thursday 22 October 2015

Ultimate BBC Goal of the Season

Image: BBC
For years it was the gold standard of football quality. Twenty-five yard screamers, fabulous team efforts, flying headers... they've all featured in the BBC's Goal of the Season competition over the last 45 years, and for a lucky few, the ultimate accolade has been theirs. Thanks to the votes sent in on the back of a postcard or sealed down envelope (latterly championed by a self-imposed panel of 'experts'), a succession of goals have been crowned the greatest seen on BBC Television every season, and they in turn have attained legendary status.

To score a BBC Goal of the Season requires talent, technique and skill. For several decades, however, you'd have needed a sizable portion of luck too. It was only comparatively recently that the BBC Match of the Day cameras started covering every match in England's top flight, but in the days before the Premier League, you were more likely to see the highlights of only a few games from the four divisions of the Football League every weekend. As a goalscorer of considerable ambition, the chances of scoring a goal capable of being remembered for generations was slim enough without the randomness of getting it captured for all posterity.

But lets now celebrate the goals that made it; the Goals of the Season, as shown on BBC television since 1970, and choose the greatest of them all. Listed below are all 45 winners of the BBC Goal of the Season competition, and we invite you to watch them all and savour their beautiful brilliance. Once you've done that, we'd like you vote for your favourite at the foot of this page. No need to write your three goals in order of preference on the back of a postcard - just type in the number of your top goal and technology will do the rest. The closing date for entries is 10 November 2015.

Goal 1
Ernie Hunt (for Coventry City against Everton, 3 October 1970)



Goal 2
Ronnie Radford (for Hereford United against Newcastle United, 5 February 1972)



Goal 3
Peter Osgood (for Chelsea against Arsenal, 17 March 1973



Goal 4
Alan Mullery (for Fulham against Leicester City, 26 January 1974)



Goal 5
Mickey Walsh (for Blackpool against Sunderland, 1 February 1975)



Goal 6
Gerry Francis (for Queens Park Rangers against Liverpool, 16 August 1975)



Goal 7
Terry McDermott (for Liverpool against Everton, 23 April 1977)



Goal 8
Archie Gemmill (for Nottingham Forest against Arsenal, 21 January 1978)



Goal 9
Ray Kennedy (for Liverpool against Derby County, 24 February 1979)



Goal 10
Justin Fashanu (for Norwich City against Liverpool, 9 February 1980)



Goal 11
Tony Morley (for Aston Villa against Everton, 7 February 1981)



Goal 12
Cyrille Regis (for West Bromwich Albion against Norwich City, 13 February 1982)



Goal 13
Kenny Dalglish (for Scotland against Belgium, 15 December 1982)



Goal 14
Danny Wallace (for Southampton against Liverpool, 16 March 1984)



Goal 15
Graeme Sharp (for Everton against Liverpool, 20 October 1984



Goal 16
Bryan Robson (for England against Israel, 26 February 1986



Goal 17
Keith Houchen (for Coventry City against Tottenham Hotspur, 16 May 1987)



Goal 18
John Aldridge (for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest, 9 April 1988)



Goal 19
John Aldridge (for Liverpool against Everton, 20 May 1989)



Goal 20
Ian Wright (for Crystal Palace against Manchester United, 12 May 1990)



Goal 21
Paul Gascoigne (for Tottenham Hotspur against Arsenal, 14 April 1991)



Goal 22
Mickey Thomas (for Wrexham against Arsenal, 4 January 1992)



Goal 23
Dalian Atkinson (for Aston Villa against Wimbledon, 3 October 1992)



Goal 24
Rod Wallace (for Leeds United against Tottenham Hotspur, 17 April 1994)



Goal 25
Matthew Le Tissier (for Southampton against Blackburn Rovers, 10 December 1994



Goal 26
Tony Yeboah (for Leeds United against Wimbledon, 23 September 1995)



Goal 27
Trevor Sinclair (for Queens Park Rangers against Barnsley, 25 January 1997)



Goal 28
Dennis Bergkamp (for Arsenal against Leicester City, 27 August 1997)



Goal 29
Ryan Giggs (for Manchester United against Arsenal, 14 April 1999)



Goal 30
Paolo di Canio (for West Ham United against Wimbledon, 26 march 2000)



Goal 31
Shaun Bartlett (for Charlton Athletic against Leicester City, 1 April 2001)



Goal 32
Dennis Bergkamp (for Arsenal against Newcastle United, 2 March 2002)



Goal 33
Thierry Henry (for Arsenal against Tottenham Hotspur, 16 November 2002)



Goal 34
Dietmar Hamann (for Liverpool against Portsmouth, 17 March 2004)



Goal 35
Wayne Rooney (for Manchester United against Middlesbrough, 29 January 2005)



Goal 36
Steven Gerrard (for Liverpool against West Ham United, 13 May 2006)



Goal 37
Wayne Rooney (for Manchester United against Bolton Wanderers, 17 March 2007)



Goal 38
Emmanuel Adebayor (for Arsenal against Tottenham Hotspur, 15 September 2007)



Goal 39
Glen Johnson (for Portsmouth against Hull City, 22 November 2008)



Goal 40
Maynor Figueroa (for Wigan Athletic against Stoke City, 12 December 2009)



Goal 41
Wayne Rooney (for Manchester United against Manchester City, 12 February 2011)



Goal 42
Papiss Cissé (for Newcastle United against Chelsea, 2 May 2012)



Goal 43
Robin Van Persie (for Manchester United against Aston Villa, 22 April 2013)



Goal 44
Jack Wilshere (for Arsenal against Norwich City, 19 October 2013)



Goal 45
Jack Wilshere (for Arsenal against West Bromwich Albion, 24 May 2015)



This poll is now closed.
Thank you for all your votes. The winner will be announced on The Football Attic website shortly.

6 comments:

  1. I still can't believe Di Canio won in 2000, that wasn't even the best goal that day!

    Scholes v Bradford wasn't a 'hit and hope' effort.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice to see your anti-West Ham bias is still as strong as ever! :)

      But you're right, hitting a volley with both feet off the ground from a 20-yard cross is nothing special... ;-)

      Delete
  2. It is also less credible as he wouldn't have done it had it been an away game!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Coventry City the first constituency to declare their vote by the looks of things.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Why do I get the feeling this poll has been hijacked by Coventry fans?
    Has Rich got anything to do with this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nowt to do with me...it's probably more the fact the Coventry Telegraph picked it up and urged City fans to vote...something which was also nothing to do with me :)

      Delete