Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
I think it's interesting to define a big goal. It's almost impossible!
Playoffs. Earnshaw scored in a playoff semi-final. That's pretty big, but we went on to lose. It was also the first goal of the tie. Thorney scored the first goal of a playoff semi a year later. Does that become a bigger goal because we went on to win, then even bigger still because that was the only goal of the tie? Had Earnshaw's first leg strike against Stoke been the only goal over two legs, would that goal have been bigger?
Campbell scored the winner in the playoff final in 2003. Obviously that was a big goal, but Chopra and Ledley scored in the playoff final in 2010, but because we didn't win, those goals have been largely forgotten. Either could have been the winner at the time, though.
Take the cups. Kavanagh and Young get the red carpet treatment for goals that beat the Premier League leaders. A year before Young and Earnshaw scored in two cup ties against another side that was 2 divisions above us, Crewe. We ultimately lost that in the replay at Gresty ice rink, so those goals get forgotten. Whittingham and Johnson get plaudits for goals at Boro, yet we hear nothing about Miller and Kiss scoring in the defeat of another Premier League team, Blackburn, in the League cup in 2011.
Joe Ledley scored a huge goal to get us to the FA cup final, yet we qualified for the League cup final without a City player scoring in the semi final! There wasn't even a winning penalty taker! Ben Turner's equaliser was one of the best moments following City in a generation, Joe Mason's goal goes down in folklore as well.
Next to the league. Goals that ultimately secure promotion or survival. Fortune-West scored the goal that got us up in 2001, but realistically we would have gone up with all the games that followed. Both times we got promoted to the Premier League, we did so with a limp 0-0 draw at home! Sean Morrison at Hull? Zohore at Norwich? Big at the time, but in a league season some goals will have more significance; the late winners usually seem big at the time.
Spectacular goals? Do they count? Mutch's winner at Fulham and Camarasa's beauty at Leicester were both highly memorable. Do they count? Earnshaw scored several worldies for us. Whittingham had his own goal of the season competition. Do we add those?
That leaves winning goals against rivals. The party after Chopra scored against the Jacks has to elevate that. Bellamy as well? Do Bristol City count? We've beaten them so often over the last 20 years that it doesn't have the same feeling of elation. Zohore's late goal on that freezing occasion was pretty big, but as big as the winners against the Jacks?
I make it that I consider these to be the big goals of the last 20 years: Kavanagh and Young against Leeds, Thorne against Bristol City, Campbell against QPR, Whittingham and Johnson against Middlesbrough, Ledley against Barnsley, Chopra against Swansea, Bellamy against Swansea, Mason and Turner against Liverpool. That's discounting league goals in non-derby games. We've scored 1439 goals since the turn of the millennium and managed 11 huge goals. 0.76% of our goals have been huge. Earnshaw scored 10 times more goals for us than that, so yes it's an anomaly that he didn't grab one, but that's due to the fact there have been so few. If you start adding more criteria to what makes a big goal, Earnshaw will probably sneak in somewhere.