Thunderbastard. A football goal scored usually from long-range with high degrees of velocity and power. Think Davie Cooper in the 1987 Scottish League Cup final. Steven Reid for Blackburn against Wigan. Roughly 93% of Tony Yeboah’s goals for Leeds. You can volley your xG into the stands. Here is a football term that should be celebrated.
Helpfully the Urban Dictionary definition gives an example of a memorable goal that happens to be the subject of this piece. The word may not have been on the lips of many in April 1986, but the phrase “title-chasing West Ham” was definitely part of the football lexicon as John Lyall took his team to Nottingham Forest. Ten points behind leaders Liverpool with five games in hand, optimism was flowing through the Hammers.
Recent derby wins over Chelsea and Tottenham had added to the belief, with strike duo Frank McAvennie and Tony Cottee continuing to thrive. The partnership would end the season with 46 league goals between them, and Cottee would demonstrate his fox in the box traits with another fine strike at the City Ground. But it was Johnny Metgod’s goal that left the permanent memory of that night.
Forest manager Brian Clough had tried to bring the Dutchman to the club in 1981, but finally got his man in July 1984, on the same day Gary Megson and Franz Carr arrived. Leaving Real Madrid after a frustrating two years, Metgod explained his decision.
“I had offers from Feyenoord but chose Nottingham because I wanted to play English football.” A Dutch international, Metgod would undoubtedly add quality to a Forest team that had been desperately unfortunate – or basically cheated – to not reach the 1984 Uefa Cup final. European disappointment was something Metgod could relate to.
Twice he had been denied by British clubs. In 1981, Metgod - with a little more hair on his head - scored in the Uefa Cup final second leg against Ipswich, but Alkmaar lost 5-4 on aggregate. Two years later Metgod was part of a Real Madrid side humbled by Aberdeen in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final.
But any hopes Metgod held of success at Forest soon evaporated as the team failed to get past the 1984-85 Uefa Cup first round. With English clubs banned from Europe after the events at Heysel, Metgod’s European hopes were dashed, not that Forest’s inconsistent domestic form suggested they would have qualified anyway.
Adjusting gradually to the English game, Metgod showed his worth with a number of influential performances in midfield, although he was equally as adept when Clough was forced to deploy him as a centre back next to the young Chris Fairclough or Des Walker. And soon Metgod started to gain a reputation as a free-kick specialist.
Goals against Manchester United and Aston Villa in December 1984 demonstrated Metgod’s prowess, but sadly another past Southampton and England keeper Peter Shilton would never have a chance of making it to our screens because of the television blackout at the start of the 1985-86 season.
Fortunately the dispute was sorted in January 1986, and with West Ham going for the title, BBC’s Sportsnight showed highlights of the Forest match on the night of 2 April. The evening, Metgod, off his Bob Willis length run-up, was about to unleash hell on both a football and West Ham’s title hopes.
The match had been a scrappy affair before Metgod’s moment. Forest midfielder Brian Rice had somehow contrived to miss from a few yards out after David Campbell had put the chance on a plate. But when Neil Orr fouled Walker in the 39th minute, Metgod placed the ball down about 30 yards from goal and walked back ominously.
“It looks as though Johnny Metgod might try and strike this one,” commentator Tony Gubba noted. “It’s a long way out. But he’s scored free-kicks from that sort of position in the past.” Further and further Metgod retreated. “The big Dutch international gives himself a long run,” Gubba added, as Metgod approached the ball.
“Oh, and didn’t he drive it well,” Gubba shouted, very nearly sounding like Bruce Forsyth in the process. As the ball whizzed past the four-man wall it showed little signs of slowing. Tracing like a missile towards the top of the net, it screamed past Parkes, who hardly moved from the middle of the goal.
Cue a finger wagging celebration – an extraordinarily long finger at that – from Metgod. “And it went straight in,” an excitable Gubba said. “What an amazing free-kick from the Dutchman. That flew into the roof of the net and it went straight above Phil Parkes. And you won’t see a free-kick struck sweeter than that.”
For all the credit Metgod’s goal deserved, could Parkes have done slightly better? Gubba certainly questioned this. “But Phil Parkes will be disappointed that he didn’t get at least a hand to it,” with some of the body language of West Ham’s players suggesting that their keeper could have done better. But let’s not take anything away from Metgod’s strike.
Look closely and it is possible that Parkes did get a hand to the ball, but such was the ferocity that it was past the keeper before he knew it. Beaten for pace from 30 yards out, Parkes at least avoided injury like Mike Gatting had recently suffered in the Caribbean. Yet it was probably little consolation to the fine keeper.
The newspaper reports chose to focus on the force of Metgod rather than apportion any blame to Parkes. “Parkes scarcely had time to see the thunderbolt before it ricocheted past him,” wrote David Lacey in the Guardian. “Parkes could only offer a token resistance as the ball flew through his outstretched arms,” noted the Telegraph’s Michael Calvin. “Had the net not been in the way it would have landed somewhere near Derby,” Stuart Jones stated in the Times.
Metgod’s stunner was cancelled out by Cottee’s fine turn and finish, but Rice atoned for his previous miss with an 88th minute winner. The defeat looked to have dented West Ham’s title bid, yet they sucked up the disappointment, winning eight of their next nine league matches. Only a stunning run from Liverpool thwarted Everton and Lyall’s Boys of 86.
As for Metgod, he spent one more year at Forest before joining Tottenham for a final season in England. Rightly or wrongly, his time in the country will always be remembered for that free-kick on a dingy night in Nottingham, a strike that justifiably takes its place on the BBC’s brilliant 101 Great Goals video. A hammer blow in more ways than one.
