Football’s Greatest Goals No.60
This week’s Greatest Goal comes from the left foot of Portsmouth’s Matt Taylor, in a 4-1 win at Sunderland.
Portsmouth were in their third season in the Premier League after Harry Redknapp had managed to get the club promoted in his first season in charge on the south coast. Redknapp was no longer at the club though, having resigned midway through the previous campaign.
The former manager infuriated Pompey fans by joining their deadliest rivals Southampton a fortnight after leaving Fratton Park. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, Redknapp returned to Portsmouth six weeks after this game at Sunderland!
The 4-1 victory over Sunderland was an unexpected victory. This was only their second win in their first eleven games of the Premier League season. The defeat to Portsmouth was Sunderland’s third in a row and they would go on to lose the next six games.
Dean Whitehead gave Sunderland the lead after only eight minutes. However, Sunderland would capitulate in the second half and concede four times. The third goal was Matt Taylor’s screamer from 40 yards.
Zvonimir Vukic had equalised for Pompey before Matt Taylor gave the visitors the lead on 59 minutes. Eight minutes later, Taylor cross the halfway line and the ball bounced up in front of him following a flick on from a team mate out on the left wing.
The Portsmouth midfielder spotted Sunderland goalkeeper Kelvin Davis off his line and after letting the ball bounce twice in front of him, he smashed the ball high and hard towards the Sunderland goal.
Taylor’s speculative shot dropped under the crossbar and into the back of the net. The small number of Portsmouth fans celebrated in a corner of the stadium and Taylor ran in front of them to accept the applause. He was joined by his team mates as the Sunderland fans looked on in surprise.
Portsmouth finished the season in position. Sunderland had a terrible season, only winning three league games and finished rock bottom with just 15 points. It remains the lowest number of points won by a team in a Premier League season/
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