My Top 3 - Duncan Spencer

Continuing our series of My Top 3, where members of the History of Goal Nets community nominate their Top 3 goal nets of all time.

This week's contributor is Duncan Spencer and Duncan's Top 3, in his own words, are:

Maine Road 1977

First up is the classic D frame from the 1977 FA Cup semi-final between Everton and Liverpool. Sheer white tight netting. The first goal displays the most magnificent ball retention.



Elland Road 1974

Next up is the old A-frame classic at Elland Road circa 1974, made even slightly quirkier as they had a small pouch of loose netting to catch a well-drilled low shot.




Estadio Santiago Bernabeu 1980

Thirdly, and for sheer European quirkiness, check out the 1980 European Cup final. Outstanding round stanchion.



Picking a Top 3 was very difficult so could I make an honourable mention of Blackpool 1974? I think it was the goal of the season against Newcastle, a mini version of the Stamford Bridge nets.



Wow, that's a top Top 3, Duncan - thanks very much for sharing!

Would you like to contribute your Top 3 to the community? DM Tony on Facebook.

Match of the Day - Week 28

Match of the Day is the heavyweight championship clash between Birmingham City and Leeds United, with three clips below showing the marvellous history of goal nets at St Andrews.

1973

Classic muddy winter pitch and classic blue A-frames - check out the ball hitting the stanchion at Bob Latchford's opener.

1979

The pitch is still muddy but the sensational saggy goal nets are now hanging off Continental D's.

1996

By the mid-1990's pitches were no longer muddy and goal nets were beginning to be pulled back tight, even if they were still supported by Continental D's. Check out Kevin Francis terrific opener about 3:00 in.

Match of the Day - Week 26

This week's Match of the Day is the Championship clash between Ipswich Town and Leeds United.

In season 1973/74, Leeds were the mighty Leeds and were on their way to becoming league Champions in Don Revie's last season

At the same time, Ipswich were four years into what would become known as the Bobby Robson era and matches at Portman Road were played out between marvellous A-frames that would see Town through their platinum, late 1970's peak.




Nearly 20 years later, Leeds were again league Champions and Ipswich had jkust been promoted to the new Premier League. Matches at Portman Road were now played between Continental D' and blue nets.



Of course, for nets aficionados, no feature of Ipswich Town would be complete without reference to the bizarre and unnecessary (yet still unique) low net supports installed later that 1992/93 season.

The Big Match - Week 16

This week's Big Match is the Crystal Palace v Leeds Utd game from the corresponding weekend (16-19 December) 1971.

Peter Lorimer's typical volley for Leeds is featured in the clip below but look out also for the crazy wooden bottom supports holding the Selhurst Park goal nets to the ground.


Such bottom supports weren't unique - they could be seen previously at the Wankdorf Stadium in Berne, Switzerland for the 1954 World Cup, as per clip below.

A-list A-frames - Coventry City FC

True, by the time the Sky Blues were leaving Highfield Road, their home for more than a century, they were shooting into a generic set of box nets.



True too, that through the club's glory years in the 70's and 80's, Coventry were synonymous with Continental D's.


But go far enough back and you find that, at heart, Coventry were A-listers all along.

FA Cup Special - Manchester City v Leeds Utd

This weekend's fifth round of the Cup has Man City and Leeds squaring up to one another at Etihad.

In respect of the aesthetic value-add goal nets can bring to the game, Etihad's black, almost invisible nets are among the worst around.



This wasn't always the case at City. They used to LOVE their goal nets.

Nearly 40 years ago the sides met at Maine Road in the old First Division. Similar to the way City responded to Euro 76 by installing Continental D's, so after the West Germany World Cup they found a way to follow the free-hanging fashion while keeping their A-frames, and went for the hybrid design.

Millwall FC

The Lions moved to what was known as the New Den in 1993, where modern box nets inevitably followed a fairly standard set of Continental D's.



But dig into Millwall's history of goal nets at the (old) Den and a rich seam of diversity is revealed.

The early 90's groove was a highly distinctive set of Continental D's.



While just a couple of years earlier black A-frames (similar to Hibernian's?) stood at either end of Cold Blow Lane.



The same stanchions can be seen up close about a minute into this beautiful clip from 1979.



But in the fine tradition of saving the best for last, back in the fierce Mid-70's the architecture were white A-list A-frames, separated at birth from the A-frames at Leeds Utd.

Budapest Honved FC

To stand out from the crowd, some clubs go for brightly coloured nets.



While other clubs choose fancy-schmancy stanchions.



But nobody - NOBODY - ever painted the crossbar and goal posts.

Except Budapest Honved.

A-list A-frames - Swansea City FC

To celebrate The Swans excellent start to the new season, here's a clip of their new manager in his pomp



And here's a clip of the glory days in front of A-frames at the old Vetch Field

Brazil - Associação Olímpica de Itabaiana

On our Youtube travels round Brazil we came across Itabaiana, a Serie D side from Sergipe with the most amazing stanchions you'll see anywhere in 2012.



Viewing the goals at the Estádio Presidente Emílio Garrastazu Médici we were inspired to re-post Grand Designs from October 2010, which re-stated the premise of this blog and celebrated the diversity and beauty so evident at Itabaiana.


Grand Designs  

When we started this blog, we began by writing about what a stadium's goalnets said about the character of that stadium or its home club (eg Arsenal) or what part the goalnets played in the club's history (eg Manchester United). We also ran a series on the World Cups, demonstrating how the evolution of goalnet fashion and technology has been every bit as interesting as tactics, or rules (or strips).

More recently we've simply celebrated great goalnets, by which we hope to remind readers that goal design doesn't happen by accident. Somebody somewhere - either within the club or, if the posts, stanchions and nets are bought 'off the shelf,' at the manufacturers - designed the architecture. Did a drawing. Turned the drawing into reality. Ensured reality entered history.

Such great designs didn't just follow what went before, nor were they obviously fashionable at the time. But in the second decade of the new century, when everybody's got box goalnets and everything looks the same, we'd like readers to remember that football can look different to how it looks today, and difference can be beauty in itself.

Sutton United

Check out the classic A-frames at Gander Green Lane, as non-League Sutton dismisses Coventry City, the last time a non-league outfit defeated a team from the English top-flight in the FA Cup.



Do these look a little like the mid-70's A-frames at Barcelona?

The Championship - Leeds Utd

Over the years, Leeds have changed the on-field architecture about as often as they've changed managers.

Under Don Revie, from the 60's -

through to the early 70's, when they installed Continental D's (and from 3.00, extracted the urine) -



Revie went and Cloughie came and went - and the Continental D's went with him;


Leeds were relegated with Alan Clarke, came back with Howard Wilkinson, and won the first Division, all with Continental D's -



They continued with George Graham through the mid-90's, with only a slight alteration to the D;



Then came Dr Faustus dressed as David O'Leary, to whom the Devil offered a deal. You can live the dream -




But you'll need to install box goalnets...