Ever since my Dad took me to my first football match at about the age of 10, I've always thought to myself 'wouldn't it be amazing if the ball was kicked into the crowd and I could rise above everyone to head it back'.
Every single football match I have ever been to I'd reach my seat and think Can the ball reach me here? What is my plan if it does? In winter I even plan where I would ditch my hot chocolate if the ball pings my way.
I'd dreamt about the big moment.
The flip-side of this ambition is the thought of could happen if I fooked it up, leaping into the air only to mistime the header, crush a few fellow fans and be the laughing stock of 15,000 people.
Fast forward to tonight at the Valley, Charlton V Ipswich pre-season friendly. I'm sat with my 11yr old daughter three rows behind Mick McCarthy in the away dugout.
76 minutes in and their defence clear the ball high into the air. IT WAS HEADING TOWARDS ME. In a split second I thought 'here's my chance, don't **** it up Stu'. Leaping up like Cristiano Ronaldo I kept my eye on the ball and dispatched the best header of my life ⚽️⚽️ straight towards the centre circle over the disbelieving head of £6M rated Ademola Lookman.
Charlton fans took to their feet and clapped. I took a bow and told Mia 'I've ALWAYS wanted to do that'.
Then the best bit. The Ipswich fans (all 220 of them) sang me a rendition of ''SIGN HIM UP, SIGN HIM UP, SIGN HIM UP'' for about a minute.
The game finished 0-0, my header was the highlight ;-)
BUZZING!!
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Heard a cheer & a faint chant of " sign him up ! "
Can't remember for the life of me why but once we had to do some performance thing for school during mass which involved me doing jumping off a step ladder and pretending to head an invisible ball.
McCarthy had a front row pew and I recall thinking in my young mind if I did the airborne football mime with enough gusto and technique in front of him then perhaps he might think "This kid's got something" and offer me a trial and so I could go and be a footballer instead of having to do embarrassing stuff like this in a church.
Nailed it but never got the offer from Big Mick and work in an office now.
If Nabby Sar can get a contract then you're in with a great chance Stu.
4 years @ £20k a week should be the bear minimum you should expect.
Oh, and try not to get injured.
I might have recalled some of the detail wrongly but it was something like that.
Great work @stuart_lee !
I was at an u18 cup game played at welling against Leicester about 5 years ago and was sitting in the Erith and belvedere stand. The ball came towards me, I got my body behind the ball and didn't spill it Nick Pope style. I then threw the ball into the pitch like Peter schmeichel. An old man a few rows behind shouted "well played keeper". I've told my agent that I'm not prepared to play for the club I love until Roland has gone
The other incident was probably about 30 years ago when I trotted along to a non league club for a FA Cup first round match against Torquay. As Torquay attacked down our side the defender came in with a tackle that sent the ball shooting towards a young lad standing behind the railings and not paying attention to a game, his side had more or less lost at this stage. The ball smacked him in the side of the head and knocked him flat. Everybody was initially concerned that he might be out cold at first. The defender came over to see if he was OK and when the kid got up and said he was alright the defender said let that be a lesson, watch the game next time.
Having moved back to the covered end (that's the lower north) I'm probably going to be back in the firing line and this thread has prompted me to be determined that should the opportunity come my way to head a wayward shot back into play I too will make the most of the chance
and duck and let the bloke behind me deal with it.
I've just edited original post with the full story, the original post wasn't the full version of events.
I was on my phone (probably catching Pokemon) and glanced up to see an errant touch from Jacko heading my way so I nodded it back. I felt nonchalant but the reality was it was a little high on the head and actually hurt a bit.
Mind you, you could have a claim.