Football – and friends – can be unforgiving at times, as Shay Given revealed today!
Given, who is currently looking for a club for a final season as a goalkeeper, was special guest on Goals on Sunday on Sky Sports today, where he recounted the day he became ‘the only Irishman who doesn’t know where Dublin is!’.
It was 1998 when, in the fourth minute of a game against Coventry City at Highfield Road, that Given, playing for Newcastle United, dropped the ball at his feet after collecting a cross. Unbeknownst to Given, Dion Dublin, the Coventry striker, was lurking behind, and netted past a stunned Given.
“I had some friends back in Donegal who bought me a wing-mirror: ‘Bring that with you the next time you’re playing’. Just killing me!” Given recalled.
The six-second rule for goalkeepers had just come in that summer.
Given added: “So you had to kick it out or throw it down. The referees were really on it as well. I looked up, there was nothing on and I just threw it down, but didn’t look behind.”
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