Thunder bastard. A football goal is usually scored from long distance with high degrees of speed and power. Think of Davie Cooper in the 1987 Scottish League Cup Final. Steven Reid for Blackburn against Wigan. About 93% of Tony Yeboah’s goals for Leeds. You can launch your xG into the stands. Here’s a football term worth celebrating.
Usefully, the Urban Dictionary Definition gives an example of a memorable goal which happens to be the subject of this article. The word may not have been on everyone’s lips in April 1986, but the phrase ‘West Ham title quest’ was definitely part of the football lexicon when John Lyall took his team to Nottingham Forest. Ten points behind leaders Liverpool with five games in hand, optimism was overwhelming the Hammers.
Recent derby wins over Chelsea and Tottenham have reinforced that belief, with attacking duo Frank McAvennie and Tony Cottee continuing to thrive. The partnership would finish the season with 46 league goals between them, and Cottee would demonstrate his fox-like traits in the box with another fine strike at the City Ground. But it was Johnny Metgod’s goal that left an unforgettable memory of this evening.
Forestry manager Brian Clough had tried to bring the Dutchman to the club in 1981, but finally found his man in July 1984, the same day that Gary Megson and Franz Carr arrived. On leaving Real Madrid after two frustrating years, Metgod explained his decision.
“I had offers from Feyenoord but I chose Nottingham because I wanted to play English football.” A Dutch international, Metgod would undoubtedly add quality to a Forest side that had been desperately unlucky – or basically cheated – out of reaching the 1984 UEFA Cup final. European disappointment was something Metgod could look back on. identify.
Twice he had been refused by British clubs. In 1981, Metgod – with a little more hair on his head – scored in the second leg of the UEFA Cup final against Ipswich, but Alkmaar lost 5-4 on aggregate. Two years later, Metgod was part of a Real Madrid team humiliated by Aberdeen in European Cup Winners’ Cup Final.
But any hopes of Metgod’s success at Forest quickly evaporated as the team failed to advance past the first round of the 1984-85 UEFA Cup. With English clubs banned from Europe after the events at Heysel, Metgod’s European hopes were dashed, although Forest’s inconsistent form domestically suggested they would have qualified anyway.
Gradually adapting to the English game, Metgod showed his worth with a number of influential performances in midfield, although he was equally adept when Clough was forced to deploy him as a centre-back alongside youngster Chris Fairclough or Des Walker. And soon Metgod began to build a reputation as a free kick specialist.
Goals against Manchester United And Aston Villa in December 1984 he demonstrated Metgod’s prowess, but sadly another former Southampton and England goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, would never have had the chance to appear on our screens due to the television blackout at the start of the 1985-86 season.
Fortunately, the dispute was settled in January 1986, and as West Ham chased the title, the BBC’s Sportsnight show showed highlights of the Forest match on the night of 2 April. That evening, Metgod, after his length from Bob Willis, was about to unleash hell on both the football and West Ham’s title hopes.
The match had been a disjointed affair before Metgod’s moment. Forest midfielder Brian Rice had managed to miss just yards after David Campbell put the chance on a plate. But when Neil Orr fouled Walker in the 39th minute, Metgod placed the ball about 30 yards from goal. and I came back menacingly.
“Looks like Johnny Metgod might try to hit this one,” commentator Tony Gubba noted. ” It is far. But he has already scored free kicks from this kind of position. More and more, Metgod withdrew. “The big Dutch international is giving himself a long run,” added Gubba as Metgod approached the ball.
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“Oh, and he didn’t drive it right,” shouted Gubba, sounding almost like Bruce Forsyth. As the ball flew past the four-man wall, he showed little sign of slowing down. Tracing like a missile towards the top of the net, he screamed past Parkes, who barely moved from the middle of the goal.
Cue a finger-wagging celebration – an extraordinarily long finger at that – of Metgod. “And it went straight in,” said an excited Gubba. “What a superb free kick from the Dutchman. It flew into the roof of the net and went straight over Phil Parkes. And you won’t see a sweeter free kick than that.
For all the credit Metgod’s goal deserved, could Parkes have done a little better? Gubba certainly questioned that. ‘But Phil Parkes will be disappointed not to have his hand in’, with some of the West Ham players’ body language suggesting their keeper could have done better. But let’s not take anything away from Metgod’s strike.
Look closely and it’s possible that Parkes actually touched the ball, but such was the ferocity that it was past the keeper before he knew it. Beaten for his pace at 30 yards, Parkes at least avoided injury as Mike Gatting had recently suffered in the Caribbean. Still, that was probably little consolation for the good keeper.
Newspaper articles chose to focus on Metgod’s strength rather than placing blame on Parkes. “Parkes barely had time to see the lightning before it ricocheted off him,” wrote David Lacey in the Guardian. “Parkes could offer only token resistance as the ball passed through his outstretched arms,” noted Michael Calvin of the Telegraph. “If the net hadn’t been in the way it would have landed somewhere near Derby,” Stuart Jones said in the Times.
Metgod’s stun was canceled by The good turn and the end of Cotteebut Rice atoned for his previous failure with a winner in the 88th minute. The defeat appeared to have damaged West Ham’s title bid, but they missed out on disappointment by winning eight of their next nine league matches. Only a superb Liverpool run thwarted Everton and Lyall’s Boys by 86.
As for Metgod, he spent a further year at Forest before joining Tottenham for a final season in England. Rightly or wrongly, his stay in the country will always be remembered. that free kick on a gloomy evening in Nottingham, a strike which rightly takes its place on the BBC gloss Video 101 great goals. A hammer blow in more than one way.
