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After three days of voting, Jeff Hendrick’s goal against Bournemouth back in December has won the Up the Clarets goal of the season with not too many, if any, surprises in the voting.

I looked at the options before the vote got underway and I predicted, as most would have done, the likely top five, and perhaps the only surprise is that Robbie Brady’s free kick against Chelsea received a lower vote than might have been expected.

Hendrick’s opener against Bournemouth, his second and most recent goal, was sensational. It started with a poor header by Bournemouth’s Nathan Aké which went straight to Matt Lowton who played the ball forward towards Hendrick.

Then it was just the brilliance of Hendrick. He controlled the ball, bringing it down with his right foot. He allowed it to bounce once, played it off his right thigh before volleying spectacularly past Artur Boruc who could do no more than see it fly past him.

The goal won 41% of the vote, just over double the runner up which just had to be Steven Defour’s against Bristol City in the FA Cup. With no disrespect to Hendrick, this one was my choice. It was stunning and lit up the whole ground and yet came from a Bristol City free kick from which Josh Brownhill fired in a shot at our goal.

Nick Pope punched clear with Joey Barton and Johann Berg Gudmundsson scrambling the ball away from any danger. Gudmundsson played the ball to Defour and the pair, supported by Scott Arfield, moved forward at some pace.

Defour returned the ball to Gudmundsson and then burst forward to receive the return ball. The rest was magical as the Belgian delightfully chipped the ball over City’s bemused German goalkeeper Fabian Giefer and into the net.

Defour said afterwards: “It felt pretty good. When I made the control I saw the goalkeeper a bit out of his goal so I thought ‘why not?’. This is a pretty nice goal. I have scored some nice goals but this was really nicely done.”

It received 20% of the vote and two other goals reached double figures. It was Defour again which his league goal against Hull, the fantastic turn in the centre circle and then the finish after he’d driven forward with the ball. That picked up 14% with Ashley Barnes coming fourth with 12% after his winner in the home game against Palace when again Gudmundsson was involved and played that final ball into the box for Barnes to smash home a stoppage time winner.

The Full Result

41% – Jeff Hendrick v Bournemouth (h)
20% – Steven Defour v Bristol City (h)
14% – Steven Defour v Hull (h)
12% – Ashley Barnes v Crystal Palace (h)
4% – Robbie Brady v Chelsea (h)
2% – Sam Vokes v Liverpool (h)
2% – Dean Marney v Manchester City (h)
1% – Andre Gray v Liverpool (h), Joey Barton v Southampton (h) & Andre Gray v Crystal Palace (a)
1% – Ashley Barnes v Liverpool (a)
1% – Scott Arfield v Everton (h) & George Boyd v Stoke (h)
0% – Andre Gray v Swansea (a) & Sam Vokes v Bournemouth (a)

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