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On Clive Allen's prodigious goal v West Ham, 1984 Rob Smyth, Guardian, 4/2/20
'Allen, like all great goalscorers, spent his career trying to find space. That generally involved running on to the ball rather than trying to manufacture it while in possession. But he did a nice sideline in goals that involved the sort of imagination and spatial awareness associated with hipster darlings. Bergkamp or Dimitar Berbatov would have [...] loved the one at Upton Park.
It started with the mundane act of stretching away from goal to control Mike Fillery’s cross, while trying to keep his balance on the muddy surface. Allen turned just outside the D and stopped to front up Billy Bonds, the West Ham captain. Bonds was leaning towards him like a sumo wrestler, waiting for the signal to engage. Their brief stand-off was interrupted when Neil Orr, appearing to Allen’s right, decided to stick his surname in. As he approached, Allen dragged his studs over the ball to move it slightly away from goal, thus partially shielding it from Orr and buying himself a split-second to work out what to do next.
Allen’s instinct told him to drag the ball again, this time to move it completely away from Orr. As he did so, Bonds saw his chance and lunged optimistically towards the ball. Before he got there, Allen produced a third drag-back to take him out of the game. Orr, meanwhile, was transfixed just outside the area, engaging in a ferocious internal debate as to what day it was.
“After the second drag-back I still had my back to goal, so I had to move it again,” says Allen. “That’s why I did another drag-back. Each touch led to the next one.”
One at a time. It’s the footballer’s cliche, usually used for taking each game as it comes. But most individual goals are created one step – or, in Allen’s case, one drag-back – at a time. There’s no bigger picture, no bird’s-eye view or medium-term planning. It’s like an arcade adventure game, where your only concern is to avoid being zapped by the nearest defender.
For all Allen’s eye-catching drag-backs, the best touch might be the one that followed, an instant push into the space in front of goal. “The ball actually got away from me a little,” he says, “and I had to stretch to finish it.”
The weight of the touch was less important than the angle. Had it been any straighter, Alvin Martin would have been able to beat Allen to the loose ball. Instead he arrived a split-second after the striker, who guided the ball past Phil Parkes and into the bottom corner.
The finish was admirably clear-headed; most of us would have been so high on our own skill as to over-excitedly leather it into Row Q. It was a goal of unique brilliance, a Zorroish swish through the West Ham defence, and even more striking in the context of 1980s English football. It belonged on the Copacabana.'
favourite bits of journalism about QPR on 08:17 - Feb 19 by Rsole
I was fortunate enough to watch that live in the away end with my mates.
My memory is that the reaction was a second or so slower than normal because of disbelief but then it went quite mad.
I was in the home end with my brother, a class mate (all QPR) and two girls from school one of which was a Hammer. It was everything i could do to contain myself when we scored especially ‘that’ goal. Hammers fans around us not happy and one even said “if i see a QPR fan I'm going to fkin kill him”.
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favourite bits of journalism about QPR on 08:30 - Feb 19 with 1586 views
Moriarty's in Baker Street station for beers before, then off to Upton Park, and back again for a few more. Great bar, always had lots of fans in of different clubs and never a hint of trouble. Happy days.
Clive Allen still up there for me (Spurs 84 aside) as my fave Ranger. When I was a mere pup I worked at Sudbury Golf Club and each year we hosted the London footballers golf tournament. I ensured I went round as Allen's ref and consequently, I was on speaking terms with Clive if I saw him down at Birkbeck, LR, or when he called over to me while I was with some school mates at the London Fives. This, for a 15 year old, felt immense. He was a genuinely decent fella.
That game and that season he was on fire for us. The year prior he scored a brilliant goal up at Cambridge, and nearly scored something similar to his Upton Park goal in the season opener at OT. People often forget how bad the pitches were back then, I always think bits of skill from back in the day more special because of that, the weight of the ball, and the thuggery that defenders often got away with.
For me: a great goalscorer and also, a scorer of some great goals. The boy could finish. He just lacked pace, which is why Lineker got ahead of him. I think in the 86/87 season he scored 49 goals for Spurs which was some going back then.
'Always In Motion' by John Honney available on amazon.co.uk
favourite bits of journalism about QPR on 08:30 - Feb 19 by PlanetHonneywood
Moriarty's in Baker Street station for beers before, then off to Upton Park, and back again for a few more. Great bar, always had lots of fans in of different clubs and never a hint of trouble. Happy days.
Clive Allen still up there for me (Spurs 84 aside) as my fave Ranger. When I was a mere pup I worked at Sudbury Golf Club and each year we hosted the London footballers golf tournament. I ensured I went round as Allen's ref and consequently, I was on speaking terms with Clive if I saw him down at Birkbeck, LR, or when he called over to me while I was with some school mates at the London Fives. This, for a 15 year old, felt immense. He was a genuinely decent fella.
That game and that season he was on fire for us. The year prior he scored a brilliant goal up at Cambridge, and nearly scored something similar to his Upton Park goal in the season opener at OT. People often forget how bad the pitches were back then, I always think bits of skill from back in the day more special because of that, the weight of the ball, and the thuggery that defenders often got away with.
For me: a great goalscorer and also, a scorer of some great goals. The boy could finish. He just lacked pace, which is why Lineker got ahead of him. I think in the 86/87 season he scored 49 goals for Spurs which was some going back then.
Yes, what a great goal it was. My only time in Upton Park. I seem to recall that Brooking played us off the pitch in the first half. The second half was a different story.
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favourite bits of journalism about QPR on 10:19 - Feb 19 with 1363 views
i was at upton park for the drag back goal. wow! i recall west ham 2-0 up, Brooking was unreal that day, he controlled everything, we were literally lost, then they subbed him, cue us livening up, found space and drew 2-2 . allen scored both .
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favourite bits of journalism about QPR on 11:17 - Feb 19 with 1218 views
I was in the away end too, couldn’t actually see the ball hit the net because of the view from there, but it’s still possibly my favourite rangers goal that I’ve witnessed live. I can’t remember anyone else ever scoring one similar, a truly unique goal. Fortunate it was caught on tv.
Clive was the best natural goalscorer we’ve had, if he hadn’t got injured we would have won the cup in 82.
favourite bits of journalism about QPR on 12:48 - Feb 19 by Nov77
I was in the away end too, couldn’t actually see the ball hit the net because of the view from there, but it’s still possibly my favourite rangers goal that I’ve witnessed live. I can’t remember anyone else ever scoring one similar, a truly unique goal. Fortunate it was caught on tv.
Clive was the best natural goalscorer we’ve had, if he hadn’t got injured we would have won the cup in 82.
He never inspired the same affection for a number of reasons, but John Spencer was the best finisher I’ve seen in hoops.
I was also there, along with apparently 36000 other Rs ! Could watch that goal 100 times over and still marvel at the finish. My all time second favourite Rangers player but that's always been tempered a bit knowing he was always really Spurs.
It's being so happy that keeps me going.
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favourite bits of journalism about QPR on 19:43 - Feb 20 with 169 views
It was a great goal of course, and it's nice to read everyone's joy about it, but it's also the piece about it I really admired, which was kind of the point of the post. Any other articles or scraps of writing about QPR people have liked and wanted to share from elsewhere?
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