The Wackier Side Of The Beautiful Game

WONDER GOAL...
Football: the great leveller. As fans of Premier League teams will find out this weekend, a man can rise from schmuck to king and back again in the course of those ninety short minutes. Rubbish defenders can become goalscoring heroes, beloved strikers can turn into penalty-missing villains, and goalkeepers from lowly Welsh clubs can find themselves mentioned in dispatches at the Houses of Commons, as Montgomery Town stopper Steve Goodwin discovered late last month.

The Welsh side are chasing promotion from the Division 2 JT Hughes Montgomeryshire League at the moment and found themselves 1-0 up on Trewern United, who are also hoping for a top finish, in the closing stages of their crunch match. A free-kick was awarded on the edge of Goodwin's area, fully 78 yards from the opposing goal. The keeper stepped up, smashed it downfield and watched on in delight as the ball glided into the back of the net.
Explains right-back and local pub owner Peter Mills: "It was the type of shot you never think you'll see, and something we'll never see again. Our manager shouted that Trewern's keeper was off his line, and you could see Steve take a couple of steps back and hit the ball. We all piled on him after the goal in celebration, it was such a stunning strike. I don't think Trewern could believe it. Their manager was kicking bottles up and down the side of the pitch."

Added Town boss Clive McNamee: "It's not the longest of pitches and it's on a bit of a slope. We had a free-kick with about 10 minutes to go and Steve's got a good kick anyway and I think he was just going to float it into the box.