Rovers were in the middle of a seven-match winning run when QPR were crushed 4-0 by the SAS of Shearer and Sutton in late November 1994. Hoops defender Karl Ready had a particularly torrid time by inadvertently playing a part in all four goals.

This goal wouldn’t make it into my top five Shearer goals although it was practically a replica of my favourite: his debut volley against Crystal Palace. 

A long ball forward from left back – now with Graeme Le Saux in place of Tony Dobson – was challenged for by Mike Newell, although this time substitute Newell was outjumped by Ready who unwittingly set up Shearer. The ball dropped down to an unmarked Shearer who steadied the ball and unleashed a ferocious strike from 30 yards to complete his hat-trick.

I was there on one of those cheap school tickets with pupils from my Dad’s school in the Blackburn End Upper, which provided the perfect view of the ball flying past the helpless Sieb Dijkstra – with that satisfying effect of ball hitting the underside of the crossbar before going in. The camerawork doesn’t really do the goal justice as it captures the flight imperfectly – although the sheer power of the shot is a fair excuse for the operator. 

The convincing win sent Rovers top of the Premier League for the first time in the 1994/95 season and they stayed there until the end… just!

A few weeks later, my school class had a day out at Ewood as part of the ‘Learning Through Football’ scheme, which was coordinated by Terry Gennoe at the time. The ground tour took us up to the CCTV base in the Darwen End (adjacent to the Radio Rovers studio). Given the opportunity to play around with the controls, schoolmate Adam Barton made one of the cameras zoom into the Blackburn End crossbar to check if there had been a dent left by Shearer’s shot!

The SAS jointly won the Player of the Month trophy, which was famously sawn in two by Manager of the Month Kenny Dalglish. Meanwhile, this goal won Match of the Day’s Goal of the Month competition – following on from the John Barnes overhead kick for Liverpool against Rovers in October. Surely there wouldn’t be any better goals than those two scored at Ewood that season? 

Well, that was until Matthew Le Tissier visited in December…

*This article was originally published in Issue 99 of 4,000 Holes and forms part of the 101 Great Rovers Goals series. We're sauntering along to completion of the project so please email any contributions to [email protected] to get your favourite added!