Richie Allen: Salford v Notts County 2015
Words from Anthony Johnson, Chester City FC's joint manager and former Salford boss.
Without a shadow of a doubt my favourite goal as a manager was the Richie Allen goal for Salford City v Notts County in the FA Cup 1st round back in 2015. We'd already played six games just to get to the first round and then drew Notts County at home who included Roy Carroll and Alan Smith (both former teammates of the clubs owners) and was chosen as the opening game live on BBC. The Build up to the game was like I used to see on Match of the Day when I was a kid. Our little ground only held 2000 but it was decided by the police and the FA that due to safety reasons we could only accommodate 1400 fans. The demand for tickets from family and friends was like nothing I'd experienced before and the city was buzzing. I remember the looks on the Notts County players faces when they saw the state of the pitch which was in a bad state and had puddles forming all over the place. They started the game really well but we grew into it and went in at HT at 0-0. Danny Webber scores straight after HT to put us 1-0 to the good.
They then had a couple of good chances including one that Steve Howson miraculously cleared off the line. We decided to make a change and bring on Richie Allen. He's only been on the pitch a few minutes when he picked the ball up near the opposition corner flag with seemingly nowhere to go. He had three players around him but somehow managed to manipulate the ball between them all before advancing into the box. He played a pass into Jordan Hulme who set it straight back to Richie - he then placed a beautiful finish into the bottom right hand corner. There was absolute pandemonium in the ground. Me and Bernard ran the full length of the pitch to join in with the celebrations. We went on to win the game 2-0. It was an unreal achievement for the club who at the time were 4 leagues lower than Notts County.
Frame not included.