By Chris Wright
With a prospective quadruple still on the cards, Manchester United were in serious danger of wibbling into the New Year on a downward keel after slipping to back-to-back league defeats at the hands of Blackburn and Middlesbrough as 2002 drew to a close.
However, a comfortable 2-0 victory over Birmingham City at Old Trafford on 28th December ensured United strode into 2003 on the crest of a win, sitting third in the table behind Chelsea on goal difference alone.
It was Diego Forlan who opened the scoring in the 37th minute before David Beckham wrapped up the tie in the 73rd with one of his lesser-celebrated crackers.
Latching on to a beautifully weighted through-ball from Juan Veron, Becks found himself well clear of a disastrously sparse Brum back line, taking a moment to asses his options before chopping the rinky-dinkiest of chips over the back-peddling Nico Vaesen…
Man, trajectories like that do funny things to our special parts.
As for Becks and United, their 2-0 win over Brum proved to be one hell of a catalyst, with Sir Alex’s mob going unbeaten for the rest of the season en route to clinching their eighth Premier League title.
A selection of other random great goals on Pies…
Patrick M’Boma (Gamba Osaka) vs Shonan Bellmare
Roberto Cabanas (New York Cosmos) vs Tulsa Roughnecks
Thierry Henry (Arsenal) vs SC Wiez
Darren Barnard (Barnsley) vs Huddersfield
Juan Roman Riquelme (Boca Juniors) vs Corinthians
Hugo Almeida (Porto) vs Inter Milan
Paulo Wanchope (Costa Rica) vs Uruguay
Rivaldo And Friends (Olympiakos) vs PAOK
Jon Harley (Fulham) vs Aston Villa
Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) vs Fiorentina
Dimitar Berbatov (Leverkusen) vs Roma
Dennis Tueart (Sunderland) vs Oxford United
Jari Litmanen (Finland) vs Norway
Keisuke Honda (Japan) vs Hong Kong
Robin van Persie (Arsenal) vs Blackburn
Ray Wilkins (England) vs Belgium