Match of the Day - Week 27

Match of the Day for this weekend is the Championship derby, Wolverhampton Wanderers v Birmingham City.

Until the recent box net era, Wolves had always supported the Molineux goal nets with Continental D's. As such, highlights of the 1996 match below are a Steve Bull late show, two crazy penalties and the classic Continental D's.

Burnley FC

Burnley are one of only three teams to have won all top four professional divisions in English football, the others being Wolverhampton Wanderers and Preston North End.

In 2014 The Clarets are back in the Premier League with generic box nets at either end of Turf Moor.

But Burnley's History of Goal Nets is dominated by Continental D's.

1961

1975

1983

1992

1996 - the last year before box nets were installed

A haunting last look at Turf Moor in the 1970's

FA Cup 4th Round Special

Of the 32 clubs which embarked on the 4th round of the Cup this weekend, only the two non-league sides show a variation on the standard box net at their home stadium.

Luton Town

Luton were the giant killers of the round, despatching Premier League Norwich City at Carrow Road.




In the previous round, Wolves were beaten at Kenilworth Road, where the Hatters still boast a fine set of Continental D's.

Macclesfield Town

Macclesfield weren't as fortunate in the 4th round, sinking at home to Wigan Athletic. Though the Silkmen also have Continental D's, they've chosen to tie them back in a hybrid box net fashion.

Shame.

This probably confirms what everyone's been telling us - if you want to see some variety, you have to look in the Conference.

Off the stanchions at Wembley - Kenny Hibbitt

Kenny Hibbitt's sliced half-volley in the 1974 League Cup final is a study in geometry - or is it physics?

Check out the strange deadening effect the Wembley stanchion has on the ball, which must've been spinning like a top.

Why it's important...

Goals are to be celebrated and, like most celebrations, they are steeped in ritual. With the goalkeeper beaten, it's important that the ball hits the net.

(If you're not sure that the ball even needs to hit the net, see the clip below and consider: what if Andy Gray had walked the ball over the line and picked it up, and ran back to the halfway line, ready to re-start the game? It would still have been a goal, Wolves would still have won the Cup, but would it have provoked the same riotous celebrations as him smashing the ball into the net?)


With the ball in the net, the ritual of celebrating a goal insists the game pauses for a few seconds for two reasons:

The fans can celebrate the goal, and;

Because nearly every goal scored turns a game in a new direction - even seemingly meaningless 'consolation' goals like Newcastle's first in the recent 4-4 draw with Arsenal can be a turning point - it is a timely pause while the new equilibrium of the match is realised.

The best way for the game to pause at this vital time is for the ball to stay in the net (or at least behind the beaten goalkeeper).

Dictionary.com defines goal as "the terminal point in a race" and net as "anything to catch or ensnare," and for 100 years after goalnets were first erected in 1892, the natural shape of the A-frame goal helped the net ensnare the ball and terminate the action.

As previously posted, the free-hanging box goalnet is not a shape sympathetic to the ritual of celebrating a goal.

This won't stop goals being scored, and goals being celebrated. But the modern box goalnet's inability to retain the ball means the modern game is giving up another of the rituals that have served it since the beginning of time.