Keepers on the Score Sheet

This week Everton’s Tim Howard became only the forth goalkeeper in Premier League history to score a goal. His 102 yard clearance was caught by the gusty wind at Goodison Park, before bouncing over a back peddling Bolton keeper and into the net. Yet, this unbelievably weird event has happened before!

Only Brad Friedel, the legendary Peter Schmeichel and Paul Robinson can boast to have scored a goal and not all of them were wind gifted flukes.

Despite being most famous for playing at Man Utd, Schmeichel became the first keeper to score in the Prem for Aston Villa. ‘The Great Dane’ came up for a corner in stoppage time, in order to level the scores at 2-2. And thanks to some pretty horrendous defending, it fell to him at the far post where he volleyed it into the roof of the net. Unfortunately for Villa though, Everton scored late on and won 3-2!

Schmeichel, despite spending his whole career between the sticks, was strangely a renowned finisher. After all he did scored a bicycle kick in the Champions League for Man Utd. Only for the linesman to put up his flag, with Schmeichel in celebration!

American keeper Brad Friedel was next to join the exclusive club when he came up for a corner against Charlton, two seasons after Schmeichel. The corner was cleared successfully but it was crossed in again, this time on the floor where Friedel slotted home from 6 yards out. Yet like Schmeichel they went onto lose 3-2.

Unfortunately for the keepers, at this point scoring a goal in the Premier League ends up with you losing 3-2 and conceding a very late goal. Paul Robinson changed this when his 90 yard free kick against Watford contributed to a comfortable win; it was incredibly the third goal of his career.

So, despite having an array of brilliants strikers in the Premier League, like Rooney, van Persie and Aguero, it appears that sometimes all you need is a goalkeeper, a bit of wind, an over hit clearance and a wicked bounce to score!

 Kobe, Year 8, Priory LSST