Football’s Greatest Goals No.27
This week’s ‘Greatest Goal” is probably the most iconic goal of the 1980’s. It came from Coventry City’s Keith Houchen against Tottenham Hotspur in the 1987 FA Cup Final.
The Final was a classic and was the perfect opportunity for nearly every single football cliche to be used by John Motson in the BBC commentary box at Wembley. The newspapers would surely also have been filled with the old classics as ‘David against Goliath’, ‘FA Cup Giantkilling’ and ‘against all the odds’.
Coventry City had reached their first ever domestic final and had finished tenth in the old First Division. Tottenham had won the Cup twice at the start of the decade and were trying to lift the famous trophy for the eighth time. They had finished in third place and reached the League Cup semi final.
Clive Allen scored his 49th goal of the season to give Tottenham the lead after two minutes. David Bennett equalised for the Sky Blues a few minutes later before Gary Mabbutt gave Tottenham the lead five minutes before half time.
On 62 minutes, Coventry’s Keith Houchen then scored a memorable equaliser that rightfully takes its place in this blog’s ‘Football’s Greatest Goals’ series.
City’s goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic punted the ball long downfield and striker Cyrille Regis outmuscled Mabbutt to head the ball on.
Keith Houchen controlled the loose ball about 30 yards from goal, took another touch and laid it out wide to Steve Bennett who was in space on the right wing. Houchen then turned and ran towards goal, going completely unnoticed by the Tottenham defenders in the penalty are who were preoccupied with watching Bennett and the ball.
Bennett looked up and whipped a teasing ball between the edge of the six yard box and penalty spot. Houchen went for a diving header and got on the end of the cross perfectly, heading the ball into the far corner of the net. The Tottenham goalkeeper, 38 year old Ray Clemence, had absolutely no chance of saving the header as it flew past him.
The goal has been shown many times over the last 33 years since it was scored and is the most memorable moment of Keith Houchen’s 18 years as a professional footballer.
Houchen’s diving header took the game to extra time and Gary Mabbutt put the ball into his own net five minutes into the extra half an hour. Coventry went on to win the game 3-2 and their FA Cup win remains their only major trophy in the club’s 137 year history.
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