Oh Denis, how could you do that?
The Manchester derby is as fiercely contested as any on the country, but it rarely produces as dramatic a Magic Moment as Denis Law's now legendary back-heel at Old Trafford on 24th April 1974.
Both sides were embroiled in a relegation dog-fight but it was Denis's strike that condemned United - a club for whom he'd scored 236 goals in 11 glorious years and where he had been christened The King – to the ignominious drop.
Other results would have sent United down anyway and the game had to be abandoned after a pitch invasion with five minutes left, but The Lawman refused to celebrate and walked sadly away, eyes fixed on the ground.
He said afterwards: "I have so seldom been so depressed as I was that weekend." In a gesture of forgiveness, United fans draped red scarves around Law's neck as he left the field.
The casual, almost instinctive back-heel with which he converted Francis Lee's cross past goalkeeper Alex Stepney turned out to be his last touch in league football. He was substituted immediately afterwards and retired in the summer.
Strangely, Denis had produced an equally less than fulfilling Magic Moment 13 years earlier, again in City's colours. On Jan 28th 1961, he scored an incredible six goals in an FA Cup tie against Luton Town. Unfortunately for him, the match was abandoned due to bad weather with 20 minutes to go, so his six goals didn't count!
To make matters worse, he scored in the replay but Luton won the match, and City were out of the Cup!
Heath makes history and Stanley pay the penalty
An historic Magic Moment for forwards, if not, perhaps, for keepers, must surely be the afternoon of the 14th September 1891, when Wolverhampton Wanderers forward John Heath stepped up to rifle home the first-ever penalty kick.
Molineux was the venue and Accrington Stanley were the victims, going on to lose the match 5-0. Ironically, it was a keeper who'd come up with the idea in the first place, one William McCrum from Milford, County Armagh in Northern Ireland.
McCrum kept goal for Milford Everton, and suggested the penalty as the ultimate football sanction after getting fed up with what he felt was a 'win at all costs' ethos creeping into the game. In those far off days, a great deal of over-enthusiastic, not to say violent 'hacking' of opponents went on in crowded penalty areas, something McCrum was best placed to witness.
After experimenting in local matches in 1890, McCrum persuaded the Irish Football Association to put the idea to a meeting of the International Football Board.
Not surprisingly, the suggestion was greeted with scorn in England and denounced condescendingly in the press as the 'Irishman's motion'. A lot of the condemnation came from old-style Corinthian amateurs such as C.B. Fry who simply refused to accept that a player would deliberately kick another!
When the rule was finally accepted, many amateur keepers protested by simply standing aside and letting the kick go in! Today, penalty kicks provide some of the most gripping drama to be seen on a football pitch.
Fittingly, a memorial to Willie and his brain-wave has now been planned. A plinth and bronze bust is to be built on the actual site off William Street in Milford where he devised the Mighty Kick.
