grafikhaus
Kraft durch Freude
Good article in The Mirror about the first-ever Premier League goal here.
Wally meets... Mike Walters chats to Brian Deane, scorer of the first goal in Premier league history
Salad days in the summer of 1992 included Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell bringing home the bullion from the Barcelona Olympics.
The Daily Mirror blew the whistle on Pakistan’s ball-tampering cheats, Gary Lineker took the final curtain and English football gave birth to a monster which has since made Frankenstein* look like a cuddly toy.
And 19,964 goals later, the Premier League has become a worldwide marketing phenomenon.
Some time in the next week, the 20,000th Premier League goal will be celebrated – a remarkable strike-rate given that it only feels like last week when Brian Deane scored the first for Sheffield United against Manchester United at Bramall Lane.
If Deane was only borrowing the limelight on August 15, 1992, when he bundled home a long throw barely four minutes into the new season, he has since stolen it.
On that same day, another striker Alan Shearer decorated his British record £3.3million transfer to Blackburn with his first Premier League goals in a 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace on his debut. There were another 258 where that pair came from.
But it is Deane – now 43 and running a degree course in sports coaching in Leeds – who became a popular pub quiz question.
He said: “There are worse things than being known as scorer of the first-ever Premier League goal.
“As a collectors’ item it didn’t win any awards for artistic merit, and it never will, but 20 years on I can still remember it clearly.
“Carl Bradshaw took a long throw, Alan Cork headed it on and I got past Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister to beat Peter Schmeichel.
“What made it sweeter for Sheffield United, is that David Hirst scored for Sheffield Wednesday in their game a minute later, so Blades fans were happy I denied them a bit of history too.
“It’s incredible to think that when I scored that goal, Manchester United had yet to be champions under Sir Alex Ferguson.
“And it’s even more remarkable to think that the Premier League has averaged more than 1,000 goals per season since it came into existence.
“That statistic underlines why it has become such a phenomenon and is shown in so many other countries.”
Deane, a battering-ram of a centre-forward plucked from Doncaster for just £40,000 by Dave Bassett, was already a Blades folk hero by the time he tweaked Fergie’s hooter.
Bassett’s teams never left much to finesse where rudimentary power was available, and Deane admits he would fancy his chances against modern defences.
He added: “I was lucky enough to enjoy a long career, topped with three England caps.
“Sheffield United liked me so much they signed me three times, but I had some other wonderful experiences.
“If I had to pick out one other goal which stands out from all the others, it would be the one which earned Leeds a 1-1 draw with Spurs and made us qualify for Europe.
“Taking nothing away from the Premier League and its entertainment* value now, you had to work hard for your goals in those days.
“Every week you were coming up against the likes of Bruce, Pallister and Tony Adams. They gave you nothing, apart from a few bruises.
“With respect to modern players, I definitely feel the art of defending is on the wane. You look at Javier Mascherano playing centre-half for Barcelona and wonder how he would have coped 20 years ago.
“He’s a fantastic footballer and for his manager it must be great to have someone so versatile, who can play at the back or in midfield, but I would have loved to test myself against him.”
Wally meets... Mike Walters chats to Brian Deane, scorer of the first goal in Premier league history
Salad days in the summer of 1992 included Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell bringing home the bullion from the Barcelona Olympics.
The Daily Mirror blew the whistle on Pakistan’s ball-tampering cheats, Gary Lineker took the final curtain and English football gave birth to a monster which has since made Frankenstein* look like a cuddly toy.
And 19,964 goals later, the Premier League has become a worldwide marketing phenomenon.
Some time in the next week, the 20,000th Premier League goal will be celebrated – a remarkable strike-rate given that it only feels like last week when Brian Deane scored the first for Sheffield United against Manchester United at Bramall Lane.
If Deane was only borrowing the limelight on August 15, 1992, when he bundled home a long throw barely four minutes into the new season, he has since stolen it.
On that same day, another striker Alan Shearer decorated his British record £3.3million transfer to Blackburn with his first Premier League goals in a 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace on his debut. There were another 258 where that pair came from.
But it is Deane – now 43 and running a degree course in sports coaching in Leeds – who became a popular pub quiz question.
He said: “There are worse things than being known as scorer of the first-ever Premier League goal.
“As a collectors’ item it didn’t win any awards for artistic merit, and it never will, but 20 years on I can still remember it clearly.
“Carl Bradshaw took a long throw, Alan Cork headed it on and I got past Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister to beat Peter Schmeichel.
“What made it sweeter for Sheffield United, is that David Hirst scored for Sheffield Wednesday in their game a minute later, so Blades fans were happy I denied them a bit of history too.
“It’s incredible to think that when I scored that goal, Manchester United had yet to be champions under Sir Alex Ferguson.
“And it’s even more remarkable to think that the Premier League has averaged more than 1,000 goals per season since it came into existence.
“That statistic underlines why it has become such a phenomenon and is shown in so many other countries.”
Deane, a battering-ram of a centre-forward plucked from Doncaster for just £40,000 by Dave Bassett, was already a Blades folk hero by the time he tweaked Fergie’s hooter.
Bassett’s teams never left much to finesse where rudimentary power was available, and Deane admits he would fancy his chances against modern defences.
He added: “I was lucky enough to enjoy a long career, topped with three England caps.
“Sheffield United liked me so much they signed me three times, but I had some other wonderful experiences.
“If I had to pick out one other goal which stands out from all the others, it would be the one which earned Leeds a 1-1 draw with Spurs and made us qualify for Europe.
“Taking nothing away from the Premier League and its entertainment* value now, you had to work hard for your goals in those days.
“Every week you were coming up against the likes of Bruce, Pallister and Tony Adams. They gave you nothing, apart from a few bruises.
“With respect to modern players, I definitely feel the art of defending is on the wane. You look at Javier Mascherano playing centre-half for Barcelona and wonder how he would have coped 20 years ago.
“He’s a fantastic footballer and for his manager it must be great to have someone so versatile, who can play at the back or in midfield, but I would have loved to test myself against him.”
