End of a goal-den age...

Sad news recently, the legend has announced his retirement from the professional game. No, I'm not talking about myself, I mean the one and only Alan Shearer. No longer will we see the famous celebration...

(This was after scoring in the 5-0 against Man Utd)

By way of a small tribute to the England player who's given me the most footballing joy since I was old enough to care, here are my top 3 favourite SHEARER related memories. Feel free to comment, contest or offer your own if you will. But be warned...any blasphemous comments will be deleted (and I'm talking mainly to the faux-Mancs like Millhouse and Smaje, and the faux-Welsh like Lunt)

3....England vs. Germany (Euro 2000 group game)

A group of us (me, Andy, James, Pete, Groome, Mike and Boz) were at the airport early on the day of the game as we were flying to Amsterdam for a couple of weeks touring Holland and Belgium during the tournament. Disaster struck though, and all flights we grounded due to some computer glitch.

After a couple of hours of mad panic we got ourselves on flights for the next day and managed to crash in Liverpool with the uni lot (Haggis/Merv/Jose/Dunc I think). We made it to the boozer in time for the game too - a load of us decked out in England shirts, carrying flags. The locals didn't seem to mind though and we got a free sausage and chips feed before the match.
Captain, number 9 and hero then headed the only goal of the game and the resulting party in Liverpool was one of the best ever. My last memory was watching a few of the group conga-ing round the dancefloor with the St George's flag lofted high.

2....Kavos, Corfu (1999)

I think this followed an England game but I can't quite remember. The location is Kavos High Street, in a bar called TJ Hookers, the people were me, Andy, James, Pete, Mike, Chris, Breeny and Raz and the drink was a pint of headfrigger (although the bar gave it a slightly different name). With DJ Tourette spinning the tunes and MCing in his own special way..."How you bloody f-ing doing tonight you virgins??"...someone came up with a drinking game. We had to take it in turns to sing a football song about Shearer, and if you couldn't manage it then you had to down your pint in one. Considering the ingredients for this pint were about 9 parts various spirits, 1 part mixed fruit juice, this was a strict punishment. And rightly so.

Round the group it went, with a variety of the usual songs, adapted to fit Shearer's name in, until someone (Breeny maybe) managed to invent a song. Probably not in the original rules of the game but it was so good it had to count (I think I'd need permission of the composer to post the lyrics). I think I was last (again, can't remember), and I'm fairly sure I was panicking but by the time it got round to me no one had used the only chant that ever gets sung about him...."SHEARER, SHEARER" so I survived.

Funnily enough, I don't think anyone pulled that night.

1....England vs. Holland (Euro 96 group game)

We gathered to watch this match in the greatest pub in Britain - the Tut'n'Shive in Donny. It was the final group game and a draw would have been enough to see us through as group winners. However, the Dutch were third favourites for the tournament and we hadn't played all that great up to that point, so tension was high. England went on to put in arguably their greatest ever performance as Shearer's impeccably taken penalty spurred them on to a magnificent 4-1 win.

The highlight of the game was England's third goal. On 57 minutes, Gascoigne received the ball from McManaman before passing a Dutch defender on the left wing - he passed the ball inside to Teddy Sheringham who squared to an unmarked Shearer. The legend duly crashed the ball into the top corner, grazing a post on the way and sending the whole nation into a frenzy. This was typified in the Tut'n'Shive where a local simply threw his hands up in ecstasy releasing his full (plastic) pint glass which looped in a high arc and landed perfectly on to Dave Santiuste's head. I can still hear the commentator (Martin Tyler I believe) scream "SHEARER!!!!!!!!" when he hit home. Thinking about that split second makes realise what Martine McCutcheon was making such a fuss about.