Random Great Goals: Mick Channon Finishes Off Telepathic Southampton Team Goal, 1982 (Video)

Chris Wright

20th, April 2015

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By Chris Wright

channon-liverpool

At one point at the back end of January, 1982, Southampton found themselves perched atop the First Division table and looking down on creation.

Boasting a team chock full of talent, Lawrie McMenemy’s young and stylish side looked odds-on to better their club record sixth-placed finish the season previous, with their experienced star trio of Kevin Keegan – back in English football after his three-year continental sojourn with Hamburg – and former England internationals Alan Ball and Mick Channon all mucking in hither and thither.

However, the Saints’ campaign started to fall apart shortly thereafter thanks to a disastrous run which saw them pick up just three wins beyond the end of February despite, as it happens, not playing particularly badly throughout.

They finally washed up in seventh place, some 22 points behind title winners Liverpool – though it was during one of their final few games of the season, slap bang mid-slump, that the Saints’ collective energy, creativity and charisma reached it’s absolute zenith.

Ironically, the goal came against the champions elect in a 2-3 home defeat at The Dell in late April, with Keegan, Ball, Keith Cassells and David Armstrong all combining amid a telepathic passage of counter-attacking interplay to create a brief, glorious moment of universal harmony before Channon came buccaneering in to apply the finishing touch.

14 passes and in.

Cue Channon’s famous windmill…

Now that’s football in its purest form.

Absolutely perfect.

A selection of other Random Great Goals on Pies…

Patrick M’Boma (Gamba Osaka) Destroys Defence With Interpretive Dance
Roberto Cabanas (New York Cosmos) Scores With Aerial Acrobatics
Thierry Henry (Arsenal) Is Grace Personified
Keisuke Honda (Japan) Manipulates The Laws Of Physics
Rory Delap (Southampton) Scores An Overhead Kick!
Eduardo (Arsenal) Is One Deft Son Of A Gun

Taison (Metalist) Strays Into Van Basten Territory
Giovani Dos Santos (Mexico) Finishes With Devastating Finesse
Ronaldo Obliterates His Peers During Unicef Charity Match

Giuseppe Mascara (Catania) Belts One In From Downtown
Geraldão (Cruzeiro) Clangs An Elastic Freekick Into The Top Corner
Andres Vasquez (Goteborg) And His 25-Yard Rabona Of Doom!
Darren Ambrose Scores Crystal Palace’s 2011/12 Goal Of The Year