Hendrick scores the best goal of the second hundred
When Chris Wood scored the second equaliser at Aston Villa ten days ago it took our total of Premier League goals to 200 and last week we conducted a vote to select the best of the second hundred which had started with Ashley Barnes’ opener at Liverpool in March 2017.
The best twenty goals were selected, three from the remainder of the 2016/17 season, starting with that Barnes goal, nine from the following season when we finished in seventh place, and all but one of them away from home, five from last season and the final three from this season, two from Barnes against Southampton and Wolves and Jeff Hendrick’s equaliser at Brighton.
Everyone was able to vote for up to three of the selected goals and it soon became evident that two of them were going to be battling for first place. Would it be the brilliant team goal in the 1-0 win at Everton in October 2017 or would it be Steven Defour’s free kick at Manchester United on Boxing Day in the same year?
It was the team goal, but only just, meaning the best goal scored in this period came from Hendrick following that brilliant 24 pass move. I wrote: “We took the lead with a sensational goal that probably won’t be worth a mention on Match of the Day’s October Goal of the Month vote,” and how right I was. It didn’t feature.
I added: “I knew we’d strung a few passes together and that one of them, the cross field ball from Robbie Brady to Stephen Ward, was brilliant, and that the finish was as calm as you like, but I hadn’t realised until seeing it again that it was 24 passes involving nine players, all but the goalkeeper (Nick Pope) and captain Ben Mee.”
That goal won 255 votes or 58% of the poll. Not very far behind was that Defour free kick at Old Trafford. That goal won 238 votes, 54% of the poll.
The other goals were some way behind but there have to be notable mentions for Ward’s superb goal at Chelsea, Hendrick’s recent equaliser at the Amex, two superb Barnes goals in successive games at West Ham and West Brom along with Hendrick’s goal at Chelsea at the end of last season.
That’s the top seven with winner Hendrick having two more in that group to add to his goal against Bournemouth having come second only to Robbie Blake’s winner against Manchester United in the vote after the first 100 goals. He’s even scored the first goal in the next hundred.
Next week, we’ll take the top five from both votes and select the best from all of the 200 but meantime you can still vote, until the end of today, for your Man of the Match in last Saturday’s 1-0 win against Everton on the Turf.
Goals 101 to 200 – The Result
58% – Jeff Hendrick v Everton (a) – 2017/18
54% – Steven Defour v Manchester United (a) – 2017/18
26% – Stephen Ward v Chelsea (a) – 2017/18
13% – Jeff Hendrick v Brighton (a) – 2019/20
12% – Ashley Barnes v West Ham (a) – 2017/18
& Ashley Barnes v West Brom (a) – 2017/18
11% – Jeff Hendrick v Chelsea (a) – 2018/19
6% – Jόhann Berg Guðmundsson v Manchester City (h) – 2017/18
5% – Dwight McNeil v Wolves (h) – 2018/19
3% – Ashley Barnes v Wolves (a) – 2019/20
3% – Chris Wood v Tottenham (a) – 2017/18
3% – Scott Arfield v Liverpool (a) – 2017/18
2% – Ashley Barnes 1st v Southampton (h) – 2019/20
2% – Sam Vokes v Newcastle (h) – 2018/19
1% – Robbie Brady v Bournemouth (a) – 2017/18
1% – Ashley Barnes v Liverpool (a) – 2016/17
% Andre Gray v Crystal Palace (a) – 2016/17
1% – George Boyd v Stoke (h) – 2016/17
1% – Ashley Barnes v Huddersfield (a) – 2018/19
0% – Chris Wood v West Ham (h) – 2018/19
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