Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
Without a shadow of a doubt Andrew Cole has been one of Manchester United’s greatest ever strikers. His record of 121 goals in 275 appearances was brilliant for us and there’s no doubt he’s been one of the best forwards we’ve had in the last 20 years.
Arguably Cole’s finest moment in a United shirt came on the final day of the 1998/99 Premier League season when he scored a fantastic lob/chipped (call it what you will) winner against Spurs to help us to the first trophy in our historic treble at the end of that season.
Growing up I was a big fan of Cole and always felt that he didn’t (until that treble-season that is) get the credit that he deserved as he was defiantly one of the top 3-5 forwards in the country in the 1990s.
Of course many critics of Cole’s pointed to his lack of success with England, but he only got 13 caps and when he was selected was never ‘the main man’ in the team, so to speak. I can still remember being furious at school when we found out that Cole had not made England’s World Cup squad back in 1998.
Cole had a fantastic season in 1997/98, scoring 25 goals in all competitions and led the line for us brilliantly which he deserved after missing a large majority of the previous season due to injury.
Still though England manager Glenn Hoddle was not really a fan of his and decided to pick Les Ferdinand ahead of Cole to go to France instead despite Rio’s cousin only scoring 5 goals all season.
It was a strange decision to say the least as with all due respect to Les he had struggled all season at Spurs since moving down south from Newcastle and didn’t look like the kind of player who could come on at the World Cup and make a difference.
That’s not me having a go at Ferdinand as 1) it wasn’t his fault he got picked and 2) he was a great player in his prime – but there’s no way he should have gone ahead of Cole.
Then again Hoddle also famously left out Paul Gascoigne out of his World Cup squad as well choosing Paul Merson instead and opted to have Darren Anderton in his starting XI ahead of our very own David Beckham who at that time was the best young midfielder in the country.
Hoddle of course famously said it would take our former number 9 ‘six or seven chances to score one’ after leaving him out of the squad. Whilst Cole did miss chances (which all top strikers do) it was a harsh statement to make and it’s a shame that that comment sadly tarnished Cole’s brilliant career – as whenever he failed to score a goal in a game that comment would be brought up time and time again.
Anyway getting back to Cole’s finest moment – as that’s after all the purpose of this article and drawing which I did last week during a lengthy powercut down my street – whilst of course he scored 120 other goals for us (including several hat-tricks) that goal is always the one that I will remember Cole for.
Looking back at the game against Spurs, it was ironic really that Ferdinand (who beat Cole into Hoddle’s World Cup Squad) put the Londoner’s into the lead that day with a neatly timed lob.
It was a goal that funnily enough not too many Spurs fans were happy about it swung the title advantage back to Arsenal who were hosting Aston Villa at home on the final day of the season.
Of course after that Ian Walker (who you can see in the drawing) for the next 20-30minutes made several good saves and it looked like we would have another ‘Ludek Miklosko’ inspired performance on our hands.
Thankfully of course just before half-time United equalised through a fantastic strike by Beckham. After half time Cole was brought on for Teddy Sheringham and within 2 minutes of coming on had put us ahead with a composed and cool finish which saw him lob Ian Walker after being picked out by Gary Neville’s long ball.
The moment as the ball looped in that day over the stretched arms of a jumping Ian Walker is a moment that our fans and I will never forget, it was a special goal that matched the occasion.
It was a brilliant moment for Cole as he scored the goal that won us the league title and although he had scored our second in a 3-0 win at Middlesbrough on the final day of the 1995/96 season which helped win us the league that year – scoring a goal at Old Trafford in front or our fantastic support in that historic season (at least in my eyes) surpasses anything Cole ever did or would go on to achieve for us.
By @ADennehey87
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