IT DIDN’T LOOK LIKE A HARRY KANE GOAL TO ME

PETER CROUCH ON THAT CONTROVERSIAL TALKING POINT

THE first thing to say about Harry Kane is this: for all his obsession with scoring goals, he is an honest lad. But he has become involved in a situation in which his honesty has been called into question.

According to Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino, Harry has been left ‘hurt and surprised’ by the way people are talking about him after last week’s trip to Stoke.

As you know, it is all because he claimed Tottenham’s winner against us. I was on the bench when the ball crossed the line and I couldn’t understand why he raced away celebrating.

From where I was sitting, it looked like Christian Eriksen’s goal.

Back in the dressing room after the game, our goalkeeper Jack Butland and central defender Bruno Martins Indi were of the same opinion.

They could not have been closer to the action and they both said the same thing: it never touched him.

Tottenham, understandably, want Harry ( right) to win the Golden Boot again and we cannot lose sight of the magnificent season he has enjoyed but for them to appeal against Eriksen so that Harry can boost his tally by one? I’ve never heard of anything like it.

I know what it’s like to claim a goal you know you haven’t scored but I also know what it’s like to have one taken off you. Put it this way, if I had been in Eriksen’s position this week, I would not have been too pleased. The best example I can give is the first goal I scored for Liverpool against Wigan in December 2005. I was on an 18-match drought after signing from Southampton but, as I picked up a ball in the first half, I was determined to end my goal famine. So I took a shot from outside the area. It was on target but it took a huge deflection off Leighton Baines’ foot and looped up into the air. As it dropped, Mike Pollitt, the Wigan goalkeeper, pushed the ball over the line. Anfield went crazy and the feeling of relief was incredible. I went on to score another as we won 3-0 but after the game, Sky Sports insisted it was an own goal. Geoff Shreeves, their match day reporter, told Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher it had been taken off me but they went berserk at him and insisted the goal was mine. Their support meant a lot. Liverpool did then appeal and I kept it, but looking back now had it stayed as an own goal I could have understood why. The way I see things, though, is if you’re a goalkeeper or a defender, do you really want be one of the opposition scorers? No chance. That’s why making that claim was not an issue.

But claiming a goal from a team-mate? It’s something you rarely see.

It reminded me of what happened when David Nugent scored his only England goal against Andorra in 2007. Jermain Defoe’s shot was trickling in but David made sure it crossed the line.

Four months later, David signed for Portsmouth. The following season, Jermain moved to Fratton Park. To give you an idea of how he felt at losing a goal that should have been his, Jermain barely spoke to David for the first few months they were at the club together.

Had Harry taken a goal off Jermain, I could guarantee there would have been ructions at the training ground. Jermain would have gone berserk!

I can only think that Eriksen, who is a cultured midfielder and loves to create, is much more laid-back. I’ve watched several replays of the goal since and it is impossible to tell what contact Harry made.

Would I have claimed the goal in his position? Of course I would.

As a striker you claim what you can, but I have to be certain I touched it otherwise I’d be worried about karma!

The fact that Harry started celebrating straight away, however, makes me think there must have been contact and that’s why I mentioned his honesty at the start.

Deep down, only he knows whether he applied the final touch.