FINALLY... I COT ONE AT UNITED
TONY COTTEE was beginning to think there would be one cutting he would never paste into his scrapbook of goal-den moments
Ever since he was a boy, Cottee kept a record of every goal he scored.
Highlights included his debut goal for boyhood team West Ham against Spurs and the moment he scored with his first touch for Everton after a British record move to Merseyside.
Everything apart from a goal at Old Trafford and at 32 years old, his chance had surely gone.
Cottee was at Leicester for the 1997-98 season after being rescued from Malaysian football by Foxes boss Martin O’neill, but with Emile Heskey, Steve Claridge, Ian Marshall and more ahead of him, he was sent on loan to Birmingham.
Cottee was brought back to Leicester, scored his first goal for the club against Northampton in the FA Cup and after impressing in a reserve match, he was handed a surprise start at Manchester United in January 1998.
United were the champions, unbeaten at home for nine months, and though Leicester had lifted the League Cup the previous season to end a 33-year wait for silverware and had already won at Anfield that season, they hadn’t won at Old Trafford since 1973.
And they were relying on a striker who always drew a blank there.
“I had played there for 15 seasons and never scored,” recalls Cottee. “I thought the opportunity had long since passed me by.”
Cottee got a chance after 30 minutes. Garry Parker chipped into the penalty area and Cottee read what would happen next rather better than Henning Berg.
The Norwegian defender watched the ball bounce over him and onto Cottee’s right boot. He swept his volley across United keeper Peter Schmeichel and inside his far post.
United bombarded Leicester’s goal throughout a one-sided second-half, but could not find a way past keeper Kasey Keller (above).
“Whenever I bump onto Leicester fans they always say: ‘What about the goal at Old Trafford ? I was there,’” said Cottee. “That was the one that put me back in the spotlight... I shouted: ‘I’ve just scored at Old Trafford... I can still do it.’”