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Home / Sport / Football

Watch: The craziest final minute in football

NZ Herald
31 Oct, 2017 02:19 AM3 mins to read

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At the other end, Padiham's Bradley Ditch heads agonisingly against the crossbar. Photo / Twitter.

At the other end, Padiham's Bradley Ditch heads agonisingly against the crossbar. Photo / Twitter.

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It was 58 seconds of frenetic action that could be regarded as 'peak non-league football'.

Lancashire-based Padiham - of the North West Counties Football League, the ninth tier of English football - trailed Widnes 3-1 entering the 92nd minute of their game on Saturday afternoon.

Did they think a point was beyond them? Of course they didn't.

In a madcap finale at the Ruby Civil Arena, Padiham reduce the deficit when Dominic Craig fired into the top corner after an attempted clearance struck Spencer Jordan's back and rebounded nicely into his path.

As the Widnes keeper shouts at his defenders, Craig immediately grabs the ball from the goal and places it on the centre spot for the restart.

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The visitors are clearly keen to get the ball as far downfield as possible and hoof the restart into the corner. There's almost an own goal from a wayward back pass and then Andrew Gillespie looks certain to score a fourth for Widnes.

He's done the hard part by rounding keeper Dane Smith but, as the ball gets caught up on the bobbly surface, his effort is cleared off the line by Ben Hoskin.

From Smith's enormous goal kick, Padiham are set on the attack again and, after Bradley Ditch's header comes back off the crossbar, Jordan was following in to head home an unlikely equaliser, to the delight of the three fans behind the goal.

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The dramatic minute was captured by the cameras of Millbour Productions and has since gone viral on social media as an example of the thrills and spills of non-league and football in general.

Padiham manager Liam Smith said it had brought 15 minutes of fame to his team.

'Everyone wants a piece of it,' he told the Burnley Express. 'It's mental, my phone has been going crazy. I think the clip captures every genre of film.

'There's horror, comedy, thriller, action. It's the craziest minute of football that I've ever been involved in. I've never witnessed anything like it.

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'I didn't realise that the goals were that close together. I thought the footage had been clipped.

'There's a bit of everything in there and I would love Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville to analyse it.

'Carragher has retweeted it and it's started to go global. Any publicity is good publicity though. It's good to get the clubs name out there.

'There's people from all over the world commenting on it. We didn't expect it to go this crazy. It's great and it's even better to be on the right side of it.

'It was entertaining to say the least. It sums up what we've got in the dressing room - that 'never say die' attitude.'

The point kept Padiham in ninth position in the table, a point and a place above their opponents Widnes.

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