Reply With QuoteMissed a bloody sitter at Wembley against England which would have been a defining moment in his career.
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Just seen that on this day in 2003 Earnshaw set a club record with his 35th goal of the season.
Got me thinking, obviously a legend and got us up the divisions, but what was his most significant goal? Did he really have an Andy Campbell moment, or a Young v Leeds or even Leo at York?
In danger of looking silly
Missed a bloody sitter at Wembley against England which would have been a defining moment in his career.
There was that goal against Hartlepool in 97 or 98, away from home at the start of his career that showed us that he was very instinctive in the penalty area.
Scoring the winner against Germany would probably be the answer.Originally Posted by EastbourneBlue
Scored the equaliser at Crewe on the last day of the 2002/3 season to get us into the playoffs.
The one I will never forget was the belter against Stoke. He also scored a cracker against West Ham in a League cup tie, which we might have won had West Ham not had a dubious penalty on half time, from which they halved their deficit.
Hat-trick v Scotland?
Most international footballers are gutted if they don't score a hattrick against Scotland.
I remember that goal against Stoke really well and a great goal it was too. A half volley from about 20 odd yards against Ed de Goey, who until that point had kept Stoke in the game almost single handed.
No he didn't have that moment for City. But he was incredible and was scoring so many goals as a kid.
I looked back on his career and it was 183 goals and thought it was less than I thought but then you see he was basically finished at 30 and realise how prolific he was.
How many strikers have banged that many in since in the championship
I screamed when that happened, an actual high pitched scream
He missed a one-on-one away at Stoke in the playoffs. We would have gone 3-1 up. This is my defining memory of Earnie. It's not fair. But it is what it is.
That’s a cracking memory you’ve dug up there
Last few minutes wasn’t it ???
I was going to post this yesterday, it's the first thing I think of too (and the second is him clowning around with Bywater during half time at Chesterfield earlier that season, funny how the memory works). We'd just gone 2-0 up on Stoke and Earnie should've made it three, a simple opportunity for him. I didn't want to be a glass half empty guy and, of course, I'd have taken a 2-1 win before kick off but that miss bothered me when it happened, bothered me even more when Stoke scored and more again when we messed up the second leg. I gave it a thought when Stoke coaches were coming past my house for the final a couple of weeks later too.
Good thread this. If I hadn't been in the Grange End for Carl Dale's goal against Wrexham (that Delmbox posted recently) then I'm not sure what my abiding memory of him would be. It does seem harsh but it is what it is, as you say.
I think he will always be remembered for his hat-trick record that will never be beaten. Hatricks in all of the following....
International
Premier league
Championship
League 1
League 2
FA Cup
League cup
There’s also an excellent podcast with him here
https://www.pro-noctis.com/robert-earnshaw/
You have to say that’s a sensational record
The way the game is now I can’t see it ever being beaten.
It's an incredible record, and surely a well used quiz question that I doubt too many, City fans aside, would know the answer to.
Him and Whittingham are by far my favourite City players I've seen play for the club. He was what you paid money to see, exciting and a real character to go with it.
Not even sure what game it is now, but I'll always have that microphone celebration in my mind when Earnie's name comes up.
And one of my pet rats is named after him, that's how good he was. Whitts is the other...
What game was his international hattrick? Was it a friendly against Scotland? Does anyone know if he scored one in MLS? Or in Scotland? Imagine if he had scored one in every competition he'd ever played in.
The hat-trick was in a friendly against Scotland. Didn't score hat-trick in Scotland (only played four games, scored two goals), didn't score a hat-trick in the MLS (scored two in one game for Toronto, but not a hat-trick).
Didn't he play in Israel as well?
Completely the opposite, four days in and no real answer to this yet so it looks like you've made a good point. I'm not quite sure what to put it down to either, bad luck I guess. I never saw him as someone who bottled it on the big occasion but his fantastic record here was cumulative rather than spectacular. He's third on the City all time scorers list (Dale is fifth) and with current players only in the 20s he'll be up there for a long time to come but it is surprising if there isn't a significant goal among his 109 for us.
Similar at international level too. His goal against Germany was impressive, as Eric said, but surely we can't call a friendly goal significant. He's in the top ten all time scorers for Wales but he only got 5 in 28 competitive games and only scored in two wins, against Cyprus and San Marino.
You're right, he's obviously a legend here (and his hat-trick record will never be equalled, I'm sure) but his lack of a big goal is an anomaly.
Who'd be a footballer eh, 3rd on our all time scorers list, scored 109 goals which contributed hugely to us going up the leagues but he's getting criticized for not scoring a "big goal" and NYC Blue only remembers him for missing one chance
Not digging NYC Blue or Loramski out at all by the way, just funny the way fans work
Fair enough. I could sense EastbourneBlue felt he was farting in church when he started this thread, everyone's had a chance to put him right but no one can so it was a valid point I think. When the board's stats man tries to claim that Earnie's biggest goal for us was in a game we could've afforded to lose about 15-0 then the argument is pretty much done and dusted.Who'd be a footballer eh, 3rd on our all time scorers list, scored 109 goals which contributed hugely to us going up the leagues but he's getting criticized for not scoring a "big goal" and NYC Blue only remembers him for missing one chance
Not digging NYC Blue or Loramski out at all by the way, just funny the way fans work
I didn't feel we were being critical. You remember the England miss, I remember the play-off miss, that's how it goes. As I said, I didn't feel he went missing in the big games, he probably just didn't have enough of them here. He didn't even get a chance to score against Swansea, which is all that seems to matter to a lot of people on here. I'd have loved him to have had a Young or a Campbell moment for us (or a Robson-Kanu moment for Wales) but he didn't, or anything close, and it surprises me a bit.
For me, the defining Earnie moment was a game at Torquay in December 2000. He'd been scoring regularly since the start of the season and had hit his first hat-trick for the club a couple of weeks earlier in an FA Cup game against Bristol Rovers at Ninian. City were beginning to score lots of goals and Earnie's strike partnership with Leo Fortune-West was starting to look too much for most Division Three defences to handle. He duly bagged his first league hat-trick in a 4-1 win at Plainmoor and I remember thinking that this lad could score against anyone. He just seemed like he had the knack. It was brilliant to watch, very exciting at the time.
Another favourite Earnie moment came early the following season away at Swindon. A massive Razor Ruddock, in the last season of his career, was in central defence for the home side. He attempted to kick lumps out of Earnie but just couldn't get anywhere near him. He got booked and Earnie scored the first goal in a comfortable 3-0 win. When the final whistle blew, I remember Ruddock theatrically blowing out air, shrugging his shoulders with a huge smile on his face and giving Earnie a big hug. After Earnie had applauded the away fans, they walked off together laughing and joking. That was a great moment.
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.
That's a well thought out post. In your first one you had to include friendlies and meaningless end of season games before Earnie could make the list so I'm hardly surprised he doesn't make the top eleven. To be fair, I did say earlier that I put it down to bad luck as much as anything. I never considered Earnie to be a choker when it came to the big occasion (a footballing Dave Chisnall, if you like) and I don't now, there wasn't really a big enough sample when he was here to draw that conclusion. Obviously he'd have had more high profile games if he'd stayed with us through the decade and it would be easier to assess then. As it is, his record here speaks for itself and the lack of 'big' goals is just an anomaly and nothing more. Carl Dale the same.
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