The beach ball incident at Sunderland recently, when Darren Bent’s shot was deflected into the Liverpool goal by an inflatable thrown onto the pitch by a Liverpool fan, wasn’t the first case of outside intervention swaying the result of a football match.
The bizarre, and only, goal of that game brought to mind many an odd incident which, one way or another, has affected the outcome of a match.
Joe Hart, then of Manchester City, suffered a similar inflatable embarrassment last year when a ball into his penalty area hit a couple of balloons, bamboozling his defenders and presenting Sheffield United’s Luke Shelton with an open goal. Bang went City’s hopes in the FA Cup – they lost 2-1 – along with the balloons Hart spent the rest of the afternoon popping in his six yard box.
One celebrated occurrence of course came here at Pride Park in 2004 during the 4-2 dismantling of Forest. As Barry Roche prepared to clear a back pass, the ball hit a coffee cup that had blown onto the pitch and popped up onto Roche’s swinging shin. It ballooned into the air and landed at the feet of a surprised Paul Peschisolido, who gratefully stuck it into an empty net. (The pic above, from dcfc.co.uk, is of the Pesch "reliving" his glory moment)
It’s typically English for a beach ball to wreck a team’s chance of winning the league, but across the world there have been more sinister powers at work.
In 1998, 11 players were injured during a match between Jomo Cosmos and Moroka Swallows in South Africa, when a bolt of lightning struck the ground, leaving players from both sides writhing around in agony.
And locals blamed witchcraft for a similar incident in Congo when the entire home side was hospitalised after a lightning strike.
It was the supporters themselves responsible for halting at game in Argentina between San Lorenzo and Velez Sarsfield in 1990, and not for the usual reasons. The referee was forced to abandon proceedings because every time the ball went out the crowd refused to give it back. When San Lorenzo ran out of balls, the match ended.
And if you’ve ever dreamed of scoring a vital goal for your team, the dream came true for one ball boy in 2006 during a cup tie in Brazil between Santacruzense and Atletico Sorocaba. In the final minute and with the away side 1-0 down, a Santacruzense shot flashed wide and went to the ballboy who duly delivered it onto the pitch and into the goal. The referee, who wasn’t paying attention, only saw the keeper fetch the ball from the net and so awarded a goal. Stuart Atwell, eat your heart out.
The bizarre, and only, goal of that game brought to mind many an odd incident which, one way or another, has affected the outcome of a match.
Joe Hart, then of Manchester City, suffered a similar inflatable embarrassment last year when a ball into his penalty area hit a couple of balloons, bamboozling his defenders and presenting Sheffield United’s Luke Shelton with an open goal. Bang went City’s hopes in the FA Cup – they lost 2-1 – along with the balloons Hart spent the rest of the afternoon popping in his six yard box.
One celebrated occurrence of course came here at Pride Park in 2004 during the 4-2 dismantling of Forest. As Barry Roche prepared to clear a back pass, the ball hit a coffee cup that had blown onto the pitch and popped up onto Roche’s swinging shin. It ballooned into the air and landed at the feet of a surprised Paul Peschisolido, who gratefully stuck it into an empty net. (The pic above, from dcfc.co.uk, is of the Pesch "reliving" his glory moment)
It’s typically English for a beach ball to wreck a team’s chance of winning the league, but across the world there have been more sinister powers at work.
In 1998, 11 players were injured during a match between Jomo Cosmos and Moroka Swallows in South Africa, when a bolt of lightning struck the ground, leaving players from both sides writhing around in agony.
And locals blamed witchcraft for a similar incident in Congo when the entire home side was hospitalised after a lightning strike.
It was the supporters themselves responsible for halting at game in Argentina between San Lorenzo and Velez Sarsfield in 1990, and not for the usual reasons. The referee was forced to abandon proceedings because every time the ball went out the crowd refused to give it back. When San Lorenzo ran out of balls, the match ended.
And if you’ve ever dreamed of scoring a vital goal for your team, the dream came true for one ball boy in 2006 during a cup tie in Brazil between Santacruzense and Atletico Sorocaba. In the final minute and with the away side 1-0 down, a Santacruzense shot flashed wide and went to the ballboy who duly delivered it onto the pitch and into the goal. The referee, who wasn’t paying attention, only saw the keeper fetch the ball from the net and so awarded a goal. Stuart Atwell, eat your heart out.
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