Matthew Le Tissier, Rovers 3-2 Southampton, Saturday 10th December 1994

It turns out that Ewood was definitely the place to be for great goals in the last quarter of 1994. If you were a regular 30 years ago, there’s every chance you saw three consecutive Goal of the Month winners with your own eyes – an obscure claim to fame.

Another strong contender for this series is the spectacular 25-yard volley from Mark Atkins which opened the scoring in this match, but that goal and the Rovers win would get overshadowed by the brilliance of Matthew Le Tissier.

With the relatively few travelling fans from the south coast, Ewood had accepted another large pocket of high-pitched screaming schoolkids on cheap tickets. This time I found myself in the lower tier of the Darwen End with St Gabriel’s. 

Curiously 1994/95 is one season when Rovers would regularly be “shooting the wrong way” towards the Darwen End in the second half, where Alan Shearer put Rovers 3–1 up on 74 minutes. Le Tissier had already kept Southampton in the game with a vicious strike, but minutes later he would score the goal of his career – which is saying a lot given his incredible repertoire of stunning strikes.

James Beattie, speaking to The Athletic, said: “Tiss and his goals were better in training than they were in games. People don’t believe me because you see his showreel but he used to score them all the time. All the time in training, even better ones.”

Saints midfielder Tommy Widdrington eagerly drove forward inside his own half and slotted an incisive through ball past Tim Sherwood to find Le Tissier in his customary position floating between the opposition defensive and midfield lines. Quickly harried by both Mark Atkins and the backtracking Sherwood, he invoked a seemingly aimless mazy dribble around the confused Rovers midfield but crucially opened up five yards of space.

As Henning Berg moved forward from centre-back to close him down, Le Tissier was already poised to shoot from fully 35 yards. The right-to-left lobbing effort perfectly found the “postage stamp” – almost grazing the underside of the bar before nestling blissfully in the corner of the net.

The speed and unexpected nature of the shot left a desperate Tim Flowers with no chance. The sight of Flowers lying helpless on his back, as Le Tissier understatedly looked back and pointed at his good mate, is almost as iconic as the keeper's famous VE Day performance and subsequent “bottle” speech. (It's also claimed that Le Tissier was merely pointing for the ball to be quickly retrieved).

Poor Tim Flowers. Even though Rovers won the match, you just know he was devastated that night. Beattie continued: “You know the goal at Blackburn – I was sat in the stand watching that. I was supporting Blackburn when he went inside, dropped Mark Atkins, and then puts it past Tim Flowers. Tim was one of his best mates at the time, and that’s why he stays on the floor. He’s gutted because he knows Tiss has just done him.”

Another key aspect of this goal is the reaction of the Blackburn End behind the goal. When Cristiano Ronaldo scored the goal of his career in 2018 – an overhead kick playing for Real Madrid – many people picked up on the positive response of the home Juventus crowd. But Le Tissier’s goal is surely the go-to precedent case in the albeit very small “applauding opposition goals” categorisation. It’s no exaggeration to say that about half of the Blackburn End can be seen to be clapping the goal.

At the other end of the pitch, the natural response of 10-year-old kids – already attuned to the tribal nature of football – was not to react that way. However, the lead was given to us from a wise headteacher in Harry Sharples who said: “Yep, that’s a really great goal, it deserves clapping.”

Matt Le Tissier was just the kind of top-class player Rovers should have been looking to sign to strengthen the team after the Championship win – although fitting a deep-lying forward into Rovers’ rigid 4-4-2 system of the time would have been a challenge. Perhaps Jack Walker was just feeling guilty after raiding Southampton of their top players for three seasons in succession. 

Terry Venables’ favoured SAS of Shearer and Sheringham also hindered Le Tissier’s chances of making a mark in the England side, but his eight international caps is still surely very high on the list of the paltriest returns in relation to a player’s ability and club form.

This goal inevitably won the 1994/95 Goal of the Season. Everything about it is a joy: the effortless collection of possession, the poetic dribble, the audacity of shooting from there, the way the ball nestled in the net, the celebration, the Flowers link and the Rovers fans. 

It’s a lot easier to look back and like this goal as a Rovers fan because the game was won and because it was Le Tissier – he was clearly a lot more likeable because he stayed with Southampton all his career and never became a real enemy in a Manchester United shirt, for instance.

The quality of the goal is further highlighted by how he so nonchalantly drifted through the midfield, bypassed the defence and embarrassed the goalkeeper of the best team in the league. Seven seconds. Seven touches. That’s all it took for Le Tissier to collect the ball and see it nestle in the back corner of the goal.

The greatest goal ever scored at Ewood then? I sometimes sway towards Thierry Henry in January 2007, but on its 30th anniversary this month, it’s definitely Le Tiss. And while Rovers had the best player in the league that season, let’s leave this memorable goal with the commentary by Clive Tyldesley: “There’s only Matthew Le Tissier who can score goals like that.”

*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!