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BEATS OF LOVE 

175. Bolton Wanderers v Ipswich Town - April 21, 1979 

SURE, I'VE witnessed some seminal moments; The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk at Bugged Out, Oasis in a big-top tent in Preston, and Nirvana supporting at the Poly, but none of them were as memorable or enjoyable as seeing this goal at Burnden Park in 1979 sat with my father. Celebrating it was our last shared moment of unadulterated joy. 

My abiding memory of the Oasis gig was watching the totally depressed and baffled looking spoken word poet Joolz try to make sense of their already forming cult, sensing they had hijacked the event. Nobody at the time could guess how massiv The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk or Nirvana would become, either. 

In 1979, I liked flamboyant footballers who had lank hair and untucked shirts, and my father liked workaday ones who tucked their shirts in like Big Sam. However, in the April sunshine, Frankie Worthington fever finally gripped my father. Despite losing, he hung back, allowing me to wait in the car park with my candy-pink Disney autograph book. 

After a forty-minute wait, the great man finally surfaced, just to strut nonchalantly past us, which I thought was dead cool. Fast forward to the next day and I'm shouting at my father to watch his goal again during On The Ball, but he refused to lift his head out of the Sunday paper. 

Yeah, I saw one of the most graceful and skillful goals ever scored on British soil and all I have to show for it is a Paul Mariner autograph.