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We may have already seen the funniest own goal of the new football season

Just give him the award already

We may have already seen the funniest own goal of the new football season
Tom Victor
06 August 2018

Danny Collins is an accomplished footballer, with more than 100 Premier League appearances to his name.

He is also a Welsh international, having played for his country in European Championships qualifiers and enjoying an international career spanning several years.

However, from here on out, he will be known as the scorer of one of the funniest and most bizarre own goals we can ever recall seeing.

Collins, right, before his own goal aberration

Collins is entering the twilight of his career, seeing out his playing days at Grimsby Town, and was in the starting line-up for the opening game of the season against Forest Green Rovers in League Two.

And it was there that he produced an own goal to rival the greats of the genre, like Adrien Gulfo and Santiago Vergini. Those might have been more striking, but this has much more of a “what on earth?” quality.


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The beauty of the goal is how it catches you by surprise. Even if you’ve been told there’s an own goal coming, you’re waiting for the big moment and then Bam! It’s already in the back of the net.

Watch it back. Watch it twice, three times, four times. At no point will the own goal even begin to make sense, but at no time will it stop being funny to watch goalkeeper James McKeown beaten by his own teammate.

We have enough questions about the goal to embark on a Making a Murderer-style documentary.

First off, what on earth was McKeown doing? The goal came midway through the second half, so there’s no question of the keeper taking his time to re-enter the field of play. What drew him to that little patch 15-20 yards away from goal?

More importantly, though, who does Collins think he’s passing to? He clearly takes a look before sending the ball goalward, yet seemingly fails to notice there’s no one between the posts. Was someone in the stands wearing clothes the same colour as the goalkeeper? Was there a ghost goalie? Perhaps we’ll never know.

Grimsby weren’t able to recover from the goal, which put them 2-1 behind and on course for an eventual 4-1 defeat. The rest of us? We’ve not been able to recover from the fits of laughter.

(Images: Twitter/Getty)