...the first ever winner of the BBC's Goal of the Season competition - Ernie Hunt of Coventry City.
Image: BBC
That iconic donkey kick by Willie Carr, followed by Hunt's perfectly executed volley secured 37.6% of our votes, with another Coventry favourite, Keith Houchen, placing second with 33% of the vote. Third place went to Justin Fashanu's beautiful looping volley for Norwich against Liverpool in 1980 with 4.6% of the vote.
All in all, we received 109 votes, 71% of which were for the top two in our poll. You can say what you like about democracy, but Coventry fans certainly know how to mobilise their support when there's pride at stake!
Our thanks to everyone that took part in our vote-off, and here once again are your top three goals...
1st Place: Goal 1 Ernie Hunt (for Coventry City against Everton, 3 October 1970)
2nd Place: Goal 17 Keith Houchen (for Coventry City against Tottenham Hotspur, 16 May 1987)
3rd Place: Goal 10 Justin Fashanu (for Norwich City against Liverpool, 9 February 1980)
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)
Mike Channon’s favourite edition of Match of the Day was the one shown on the evening after the 1976 FA Cup Final. He was busy celebrating with his Southampton team-mates but, said Channon, “I cheated a bit and asked a friend to record both the match and the programme in the evening on a video tape recording machine I had just acquired.”
This, friends, was 1978, an era when VCRs were as rare as the hairs on Bruce Forsythe’s head, yet Mick Channon wasn't the only player to watch his favourite MOTD on tape. Colin Lee did likewise in 1977 after Tottenham’s 9-0 win over Bristol Rovers - a match in which Lee scored four:
“I can’t remember a great deal about the game itself, although a supporter taped Match of the Day and gave it me as a souvenir. I don’t have a recording machine myself, but I have a friend who has one and we've watched it a couple of times. It’s unbelievable.”
Ah, did we ever live in a world where VCRs were considered ‘new-fangled technology’...?
The first edition of the BBC’s Match of the Day programme was aired on 22 August 1964. Shown on BBC2, it was the first time people in the UK (albeit only in London at first) were able to watch football highlights on their own TV screens.
Despite initial fears that it might lead to fewer people going along to watch matches in person, it went on to become an institution of British broadcasting and a go-to programme for British football fans everywhere.
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