Which players have ended goal droughts with a strike off their backside?
Readers asked which footballers have ended scoring droughts with a goal off their backside after John Cant noted that "Oli McBurnie is back in the Scotland squad," adding last week that, with his record of 16 appearances [now 20] and zero goals, McBurnie said in a recent interview, "a tap-in on Saturday or one that goes in off my backside would be lovely".
The Knowledge found no perfect example of a prolific striker breaking a long barren run via an errant clearance off the backside, but identified several players whose first or only goals arrived in that manner. "Dean Coney for Norwich in a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa in 1989," writes Gary Southwell. "He charged down a clearance from Nigel Spink that rebounded off his backside and into the net. It was his only goal for the club."
An international-level counterpart was noted by Rohan Back: "Australia’s Robbie Slater, who won the Premier League while at Blackburn, springs to mind," he writes. Slater scored his first goal for the Socceroos with his backside against the Solomon Islands in his 21st full international; it was the opening goal in a 6-2 win during qualification for France 98, a strike that prompted Terry Venables to wear "the uncomfortable smile of a man who wondered how, in the space of 12 months, he’d gone from Gazza’s wonder goal against Scotland to a backside ricochet against the Solomon Islands."
Mike Richardson and Simeon Goldstraw contributed the Stoke example: "Souleymane Oularé played just two games for Stoke City, scoring a single goal in a playoff semi-final against Cardiff," Richardson writes. At Ninian Park in May 2002, after Stoke had lost the first leg 2-1 at home and James O’Connor scored in the 90th minute to force extra time, O’Connor’s free-kick hit Oularé and bounced into the net with five minutes of extra time to play. "He was signed in December 2001, but was ruled out for most of the season following a life-threatening blood clot after his debut against Northampton," Goldstraw adds; Oularé stayed on the bench in the playoff final, did not play again for Stoke and his career with the Potters amounted to 80 minutes.
More recent instances include defensive and attacking examples across the English top flight and the Women’s Super League: William Saliba scored with his rump against Manchester United in 2024-25; Thierno Barry "slid the ball into the net with his behind to give Everton victory at St James’ Park last season"; and in March 2024 a big deflection off Sjoeke Nüsken put Chelsea 3-0 up in a vital clash against Arsenal, although it is unclear whether it came off her backside or her leg. A 2010 Scottish Cup quarter-final at Tannadice ended with a single, bizarre goal from David Robertson, another instance where observers remain unsure whether the final touch was truly a backside finish.
Readers also raised other, separate items. Greg Hunt noted that "Andy Burnham and Mark Carney were in attendance at the recent Everton v Wolves Carabao Cup match," adding that the UK prime minister and his Canadian counterpart, both Everton fans, watched the 1-0 win over Wolves last month and that Burnham has been pictured running in a retro, Hafnia-sponsored shirt. Chris Greenhough recalled that Tony Blair brought Bertie Ahern to two editions of Newcastle v Manchester United — the 1997 St James’ Park match lost 1-0 to an Andy Cole goal and the 1999 FA Cup final at Wembley — and the column says, "We make that a score of Blair 0-2 Ahern, as Ireland’s former taoiseach is a lifelong Manchester United fan." The piece also notes David Cameron hosted a 2015 summit with President Xi at Manchester City’s training ground and that he watched the 2012 Champions League final on TV with Barack Obama and Angela Merkel.
On disciplinary matters, Martin Brodetsky recorded that Oxford United goalkeeper Simon Eastwood was sent off towards the end of their EFL Trophy game at AFC Wimbledon on 9 January 2024, with the U’s eliminated after losing 2-0, and that, "With Oxford spending the next two seasons in the Championship, Eastwood’s suspension has come back into play for Tuesday’s game against Exeter." Mykola Kozlenko supplied a longer-running example in Éric Matoukou: "On 19 August 2010, Matoukou received a red card playing for Genk in a Europa League qualifier against Porto, and was handed a two-match suspension," Kozlenko writes. Matoukou served the first match on 26 August 2010 but, after a sequence of transfers and squad omissions culminating in a 2 August 2012 appearance for Arsenal Kyiv against Mura that forced a forfeit and a restarted suspension, he never completed the second game; Dnipro later played eight Europa League games but he did not make their European squad, he left the club in 2014, subsequent clubs have not qualified for Europe, and "Matoukou is now 43 and last played for amateur Belgian side Sprimont Comblain, so it seems highly unlikely he will ever complete a ban received more than 16 years ago."
The Knowledge also addressed very quick scorelines. John Baker highlighted Coventry’s Checkatrade Trophy match at home to Northampton in October, when Dan Agyei scored after 20 seconds and Marc Richards equalised a minute later, leaving the score 1-1 after about 90 seconds and a final 3-1 win for Coventry. Dirk Maas recalled the Serie A fixture of 13 September 1992 between Pescara and Milan in which Pescara led in the first minute, Paolo Maldini equalised two minutes later, Gianluigi Lentini put Milan ahead in the fifth, two Franco Baresi own goals in the 12th and 14th made it 2-2, Pescara led again in the 23rd, Marco van Basten scored in the 37th and 39th to make it 4-4 at half-time and then completed a second-half hat-trick as Milan won 5-4.
Other reader questions ranged from the German kit supplier switch from Adidas to Nike after 70 years and whether that is the longest kit partnership, to whether any top-four English league matches have seen no added time since its introduction in 1891, to Scotland registering a sending-off in each of their last two games against Switzerland and North Macedonia and the longest streak of consecutive matches with a red card. Miscellany included George Desmond Kamurasi of SE Dons reportedly being selected as king of the Tooro kingdom, Scott McDonald’s 26 Australian caps without a goal, Harry Kane becoming Bayern’s seventh-highest scorer while remaining Tottenham’s top scorer and the related Jimmy Greaves note, and Scotland’s highest and lowest Fifa rankings of 13th (2007) and 88th (2005) — a 75-place difference.
Oxford’s disciplinary scenario means Eastwood’s suspension will affect Tuesday’s game against Exeter; readers with further queries are invited to mail The Knowledge at knowledge@theguardian.com.