Iconic Moments in Football No.54
There have already been two dogs that have featured on this blog. On 10th June, I wrote an ‘On This Day’ article about a dog that invaded the pitch during a World Cup match between Brazil and England at the 1962 World Cup. Brazilian superstar Garrincha was so smitten by the pooch that he decided to keep it as a pet!
Three months before that, I wrote about Pickles, the dog that found the stolen World Cup trophy back on 20th March 1966. If you’d like to read either article, click on the date and it will transfer you to each of the articles.
Both of those stories about a man’s best friend are heart-warming stories. This week’s ‘Iconic Moment’ features a dog and had ultimately very bad consequences. I should point out that the dog was alright, although it may have had a stern tellin off from it’s owner!
Brentford travelled to Colchester United back in 28th November 1970 in a Third Division match. There were television cameras at the ground that day as ‘Match of the Week’ were covering the game. This was something very unusual for a football match being played in the third tier!
The Bees’ goalkeeper was a certain Chic Brodie, who had several unfortunate events happen to him over the course of his career.
In 1964, in a match away to Carlisle United, a home fan threw a stone at him, hitting his knee and injuring him so badly that he needed to be stretchered off. The following year, Brodie got the fright of his life when a hand grenade was thrown into his goalmouth during a visit to Millwall.
Fast forward to 1970 and Brodie tipped a cross over for a corner before swinging on the goalframe. His weight caused the goal to snap and come crashing down. He injured his back when he hit the ground and caused a 45 minute delay whilst the goal was fixed! A few months later, Brentford visited Layer Road, home of Colchester United.
If there wasn’t video footage of what happened to arguably the unluckiest goalkeeper in football, many people would never have believe it to be true.
Brentford had possession of the ball in the left wing position, somewhere between the penalty area and the touchline. A Colchester defender then won back possession before the TV commentator noticed that a dog had got onto the pitch!
“In comes that blessed dog again!” was the despairing remark as the dog negam to run around near the ball.
For some reason, the referee didn’t blow the whistle to stop the game. Instead, the game carried on and Colchester’s Micky Cook hit a long and hopeful ball down the right wing.
Possession was regained by Brentford defender Peter Gelsen about 25 yards from goal. Suddenly the white dog appeared on the bottom of the screen, making a speedy run after the ball and it ran diagonally across the pitch towards the Brentford right back, who Gelsen had found with a pass across the penalty area moments before.
As Brentford player on the ball looked up, he suddenly saw the dog rapidly approaching him. He passed the ball back to Brodie who was standing near the penalty spot.
Brodie leant forward to pick up the ball and the dog ran straight at him, colliding with his left leg and knocking the Brentford goalkeeper straight to the floor. The crowd cheered a remarkable incident but sadly Brodie didn’t see the funny side of the incident one little bit.
The collision with the dog shattered Brodie’s left kneecap. After the incident, Chic Brodie never played professional football again.
The goalkeeper returned to football the following year, joining non-league Margate. Brodie then left to join Maidstone United, another non-league side and ended his career there.
Oh and if you were wondering, Colchester won the game 4-0!
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