Goal of the decade: Round 5
Sunday, 17th Jan 2010 20:48

You know how it works. Read the choices, watch the youtube links where applicable and then vote down the right hand side of the page for your favourite goal in the penultimate heat of our Goal of the Decade competition.

Goal of the Decade

Goal 1 - Lee McEvilly: Preston 1 Dale 2 - 4th January 2003

Ah, the day Craig Brown needed cheering up. When we look back at Evil's time with Dale, we always tend to remember the same sort of things. The brute of a forward who played like a runaway rhino (every team needs a John Rhino?), knocking over anybody who dared get into his way. What we did not assoicate him with was the rather more delicate art of set pieces. Those we tend to leave for the more refined players, such as the Rickie Lamberts, or the Lee Todds or the Mark Stuarts of this world, and not the Evils. With respect to the former McDonalds worker, this was a completely different type of free kick to anything those others may have scored. When he stepped up, there wasn't anybody else in the ground who thought that he was going to have a shot, and from memory there wasn't even a wall in place, though that may have been for personal safety reasons rather than tactical reasons. But if he wasn't going to shoot, what else was he going to do with it? Deliver a "landing on a sixpence" cross to the far post? He stepped up and smashed it with all its might, and it was probably only the attached net that prevented him being on a manslaughter charge if the ball had struck a home supporter. It had venom, power and rather appropriately, it wouldn't be wrong to call it an evil shot, such was the ferocity of it. The unexpected celebrations in the stand saw me cover half the stand in a meat and potato pie (someone else's thankfully), whilst rather oddly after scoring this goal, not a single team mate went to celebrate with him.

Goal 2 - Patrick McCourt: Halifax 1 Dale 2 - 5th March 2002

If I'm being brutally honest, this was one of Paddy's worst games for the club. I once saw this game described as a reason why Paddy was such a good super sub for the club, but the reality was that he'd played from the start, but he just didn't do anything. In fairness to the Derry Diego, he wasn't alone as Dale stored up one of their worst performances of many a season against a side practically relegated with two months of the season to go and reduced to ten men midway through that first half. But the game should have been tailor made for someone like Paddy to show off all of his wonderful talents, and all we had was Paddy the passenger. Until the last minute. It might not actually have been the last minute, I think in reality there was something like five or six minutes remaining, but on that night it felt like we were about half an hour into injury time when Paddy had his defining moment for the club. Legend will no doubt have it that Paddy picked the ball up from our own defensive cornerflag, before starting his run, and there'll no doubt be other's claiming that the run started in Lancashire before he started his assault on the Shaymen back line, but the run in itself was one not requiring any exaggeration to enter the history books. Picking it up on the halfway line, Paddy ran into the space as the Yorkshiremen backed off He laid the ball off to Townson who returned the favour for that pass against York one month earlier, with a delightful touch directing it into the feet of the continued run of McCourt, who then displayed elegance, genius, inventiveness and arrogance all rolled into one, by dancing off the attempts of a couple of 'Fax defenders to pick his spot. His finish was far more than just a case of sticking it in, and a sublime touch left the Shaymen keeper bamboozled and great example of stranger hugging on the terrace behind that goal amongst the disbelief at what we'd just seen. YouTube link

Goal 3 - Paul Connor: Dale 2 Plymouth 1 - 1st May 2001

When the awards were given out for goal of the season for 2000-01, this one didn't get a look in. But that was no reflection on the goal itself, it just occurred that late in the season, that all the voting had already taken place before Connor had decided to stake his finest for the season, leaving somewhat bemused faces when the gongs were given out at that season's awards do as a result. Connor's goal was a cracker and came at possibly the most nerve biting moment of the season. Dale were hosting Plymouth in the final week of the season, knowing that this was a must win game to have any hope of making the Play Offs that season. As it was, nerves had certainly got the better of a weary Dale side who had played something stupid like 28 games in the previous 28 days, and they had found themselves trailing at half time to a side with more than one eye on their Summer holidays. An opportune own goal had given Dale a fighting chance before Connor did what Connor did so well that season, and that was score a goal out of absolutely nothing. With a couple of defenders in front of him, he made space for himself by moving to his left before rocketing the ball into the back of the net before anyone had been given a chance to even blink. Stunning stuff from Connor, but so typical of everything that he did for us that season. Unplayable.

Goal 4 - Gary Jones: Bristol R 0 Dale 2 - 10th Nov 2001

When Dale travelled down to Bristol in November 2001, the spirits should have been very high indeed. Dale were romping high in the top three of the division, and looking on course for the first promotion since the sixties. But we'd been rocked during the week with the news of Steve Parkin's departure to Barnsley, and there was a great deal of insecurity both on and off the pitch based upon on how our season would react to that. Would this derail our season and with it our promotion aspirations? Dale led 1-0 with a Clive Platt goal, and were looking good value for keeping hold of that lead, but with that uncertainty surrounding the side at that time, you never knew what was to come. But with around twenty minutes of the game to go, we secured the win with one of the goals of the season with two players playing an unfamiliar role in the goal. Clive Platt was the provider as Dale broke and he launched it forward to a counter attacking Gary Jones. With a finish more akin to a Shearer or a Rooney, Jonah chested the ball down before volleying it home from the edge of the penalty box before racing straight to the Dale fans in the pre-historic away fans section at the Memorial Ground with the biggest grin you've ever seen and disappearing into a crowd of bodies.

Goal 5 - Ben Muirhead: Dale 2 Darlington 1 - 17th May 2008

As penalties go, the best thing you could say about this one is that it went in. It wasn't a some sort of genius penalty where he's made the keeper look stupid by a subtle chip, and it wasn't a the sort of spot kick which you'd have down as unsaveable. But I guarantee that there hasn't been a goal scored by a Dale player that you have celebrated as much as this one, as Muirhead cemented his place in Dale history by smashing the ball past the Premiership bound Darlington keeper to take Dale to Wembley for the first time in our history. On the day, much of it will have been a blur and its only watching it back on YouTube which shows it for what it is. As he steps up to take the kick, there's a moment of silence as the whole ground collectively held their breath. Followed by what can only be described as pandemonium. And with that kick, Muirhead kicked the ball for the last time in a Dale kit and put a completely different spin on his time with the club, which was in reality a massive disappointment from the moment he penned a permanent deal with the club, ensuring that Dale fans will forever smile at the very mention of his name. YouTube link and I challenge you to avoid grinning like a loon