Football’s Greatest Goals No.37
This week’s ‘Greatest Goal’ comes from the FA Cup Fourth Round tie between Queens Park Rangers and Barnsley in the 1996/97 season.
Last week’s ‘Greatest Goal’ came from the round before in the same season and was scored by Arsenal’s Dennis Bergkamp. It lead to one of the toughest decisions ever for viewers and pundits to choose who to give the Match of the Day ‘Goal of the Month Award’ to!
The match itself was a five-goal thriller with Barnsley taking the lead after 13 minutes thanks to a free-kick from Neil Redfearn.
Gavin Peacock scored a wonderful equaliser seven minutes later, running through on goal before curling the ball into the top corner past Watson in the Barnsley goal. John Spencer then pounced to score from a few yards out to give the home side the lead on 26 minutes.
The score stayed at 2-1 until the 74th minute when Trevor Sinclair pulled off the incredible bicycle kick that is the featured goal of this article.
After a throw in out on the right wing by Rangers defender Danny Maddix, there was brief exchange of passes between Maddix, Daniel Dichio and John Spencer, the scorer of the second goal. Maddix briefly lost possession of the ball before laying the ball back to Spencer.
Spencer was positioned right on the touchline and about 30 yards from goal. He hit a high and hopeful cross in towards the edge of the box. What happened next shocked everyone in the ground.
Spencer’s cross dropped at the very edge of the box, dead centre and in line with the penalty spot. Trevor Sinclair had followed the flight of the ball but had his back to goal and a Barnsley defender close behind him.
In a moment of inspiration, Sinclair jumped off the ground, connecting with the ball sweetly with a fantastic scissor kick about six feet off the ground.
Barnsley goalkeeper David Watson was stood just inside his six yard area and was caught off-guard. The ball had already passed him by the time he made a dive and rippled down the back of the net.
John Hendrie gave Barnsley hope in the 86th minute by bringing the score back to 3-2 but they were unable to get the equaliser to take the tie to a replay.
The Yorkshire club were out of the Cup but come the end of the season, that was of little importance to them. The club finished runners up to and were promoted to the Premier League, the first time that they had ever reached the top tier of English football.
QPR lost 2-1 away to Premier League side Wimbledon in the next round. The Dons would go all the way to the Semi Final before losing to eventual winners Chelsea.
This goal from Trevor Sinclair is still played over and over again on FA Cup goal montages on television coverage. It is widely-regarded as one of the greatest goals scored in the 128 years of the competition. It was the stand-out moment of his 19 years as a professional footballer.
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