That was a muddy good goal, son...
... but dance of delight by the ‘scorer’ is all in vain in video seen by millions
IT should have been a moment of joy — but it left one footballer red-faced.
Portadown striker Adam Salley’s premature celebration has gone viral on social media after he was denied a certain score because of a muddy goalmouth.
The match between Portadown and Queen’s University was just one of two fixtures to go ahead in the Bluefin Championship — the second tier of local football — at the weekend.
As Storm Dennis hit, conditions at the Ports’ Shamrock Park stadium were particularly difficult, with the wind and rain-saturated pitch playing havoc.
Things took a particularly bizarre turn, however, after Salley (23) burst free from midfield in the 42nd minute and slotted the ball past the goalkeeper.
Wheeling away in celebration after what he thought was a certain goal, Salley was unaware that the ball had actually got stuck in the mud on the goal-line.
Instead it was left to teammate Chris Lavery to finish off the chance and nab surely the easiest goal he will ever score.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Salley (right).
He went on to get a hat-trick in the second half as Portadown demolished Queen’s 7-1.
The bizarre incident has proven to be a hit on social media, with video footage of the goal viewed by millions online.
Salley told the Belfast Telegraph yesterday: “Never, ever in my life has something like this happened before on a pitch.
“To be honest, for the weather we had, the work done on the pitch by the ground staff to get the game on was exceptional.
“It was pelting down with rain all afternoon and there was a good bit of wind.
“The way I was looking at it, I hit it and assumed the ball was just rolling into the net.
I have a thing with one of my workmates that if I score, I was going to do this dance celebration.
“I looked up and the fans weren’t celebrating and then they celebrated about five seconds after.
“It was a wee bit embarrassing, to be honest. I can have a laugh about it now though. “I went in at half-time laughing.
“It was all a bit of craic. I had actually joked about it happening before the match and thinking it would be just my luck for that to happen to me.
“Chris is my best mate to be fair, so I’d rather him score it than anybody else anyway.
“We had a laugh about it at half-time along with the rest of the lads in the dressing room.”
The incident has been viewed by tens of thousands on Soccer AM’s Twitter page, more than 100,000 on the BBC Sport NI page and 2.4 million on Instagram, and Salley described the reaction as “crazy”.
“I’ve seen it on Sky Sports News today,” he added. “If that happens again, next time I’ll just walk off the pitch.
“I’m not looking forward to going into work tomorrow. Most of the people I work with are Portadown supporters, so I’m sure I’ll get a fair amount of stick from them.”
Portadown are 10 points clear at the top of the Championship.