Football’s Greatest Goals No.38
This week’s ‘Greatest Goal’ comes from Aston Villa’s Dalian Atkinson in the first season of the Premier League.
The goal came on a wet October afternoon against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park. It was the second season that Wimbledon were playing their home games at Crystal Palace’s home ground after leaving their Plough Lane home in 1991.
Wimbledon often played in front of small crowds at Selhurst Park and this match against Aston Villa was no exception. There were only 6,849 fans in the ground that day and those hardy few were treated to a magnificent individual goal by Atkinson in the second half.
Atkinson’s new strike partner Dean Saunders had scored two goals in the first half to give Villa a two-goal advantage. Wimbledon substitute Aidan Newhouse halved the deficit on 34 minutes but The Dons were unable to find an equaliser.
On 77 minutes, Atkinson received the ball halfway inside the Villa half and facing his own goal. He was put under immediate pressure by Lawrie Sanchez but the Wimbledon midfielder was easily outmuscled.
Atkinson had only gone a few yards before he had to skip over a sliding challenge from Wimbledon’s Scott Fitzgerald.
The Villa striker had now built up quite a pace and side-stepped Gary Elkins on the halfway line who after failing to stop Atkinson, carried on running into his half.
A couple of seconds later, Elkins was given a second opportunity to win the ball. He attempted a shoulder barge and although it knocked Atkinson slightly off-balance, it had no chance of stopping him.
Three defenders now stood in the way and began to coverge on Atkinson who was 25 yards from goal. The Villa man looked up and saw Hans Segers six yards off his line. With an audacious chip, Atkinson lofted the ball over the Dutch goalkeeper and into the back of the net.
In perhaps one of the most British pitch invasions, an Aston Villa fan jumped over the advertising hoarding and ran towards Atkinson carrying an umbrella! Dean Saunders jumped on Atkinson’s back and grabbed a hold of the umbrella before being joined by Ray Houghton and Shaun Teale. It was such a bizarre celebration and the fan was gone almost as quickly as he appeared, probably because he was being chased by the Metropolitan Police’s finest!
Andy Clarke scored a second for Wimbledon in injury time and the game ended 2-3 but the result was immaterial. The goal (and bizarre celeration!) would be the only highlight of the match. It won the BBC Match of the Day ‘Goal of the Season’ and quite rightly. It was a fantastic example of pace, power and fantastic skill to perfect the chip over Hans Segers in the Wimbledon goal.
Dalian Atkinson sadly passed away in August 2016 after an incident involving police at his father’s home.
About Author
