Barnsley beat Wycombe in League One on Tuesday night thanks to a bizarre goal from Sam Cosgrove.
The game was goalless in the 91st minute when Cosgrove approached Wycombe goalkeeper Max Stryjek in an attempt to make him pick up the ball and get the game going.
The Barnsley striker bumped gently into Stryjek and the goalkeeper hit the deck in an attempt to buy a foul. Unexpectedly, as he fell to the turf, Stryjek dropped the ball and Cosgrove put it in the net to the delight of the home supporters, though many were surely expecting referee Darren Drysdale to blow for a foul. He did not.
The winner... ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/8oqG9t6kPM
— Barnsley FC (@BarnsleyFC) November 28, 2023
"Best goal I've scored!" Cosgrove told BBC Radio Sheffield about his first for the club since joining from Birmingham in September.
"From half an hour in, they were being slow with the ball - borderline time-wasting. The [goalkeeper] has gone down from the corner when no one's touched. The ref has given him the ball back and he's waiting for me to come up to him. It's a little bit poor from that point of view.
"I've probably nudged into him, there's a little bit of contact but there's absolutely nowhere near enough to drop the ball and fall on the floor.
"I'll be honest, I've been desperate for that first goal. I feel as if I've been contributing in other ways on the pitch but to get that first goal was nice. There was no chance I wasn't putting the ball in the back of the net. Then it's just up to the ref to get that decision in the end.
"Keepers, notoriously, get a lot more decisions going for them. I suppose they can be a bit more vulnerable when they're going up to get balls but in a scenario like that, there's absolutely no need for him to drop the ball and go down in that fashion. Fair play to the ref and kudos to him for seeing that it wasn't a foul."
“It’s the best goal I’ve scored!” 😂
Sam Cosgrove’s take on ‘that’ goal for Barnsley against Wycombe tonight#BarnsleyFC | @BBCSheffield pic.twitter.com/gzIpGBlBN7
— Football Heaven (@footballheaven) November 28, 2023
Wycombe manager Matt Bloomfield said he'd "never seen anything like it in my time in football". Barnsley manager Neill Collins, however, had witnessed a similar goal.
"We were 2-0 up at Bramall Lane, Sheffield United against Bournemouth, and Steve Simonsen has got the ball and I am running up the pitch and he goes to throw it to someone and the guy bumps into him and he drops it and it goes into the goal and he turns around and it's given it as a goal," Collins told the Yorkshire Post.
GOAL to Barnsley. I can't even...
🔴 1-0 🟢
— Wycombe Wanderers (@wwfcofficial) November 28, 2023
"It is very bizarre and I have been part of that before. I have just watched it back there, make of it what you want.
"For me, the contact is nowhere near enough to go down. The keeper drops onto the ball, if he holds onto the ball, we are not even talking about that he drops the ball.
"He certainly does not drop the ball because of Sam’s contact, he drops the ball because he falls to the floor and Sam finishes it off as a good striker should.
"It was the keeper’s decision to drop to the floor and then he dropped it."
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