It’s intriguing to see this overnight discovery of goalscoring substitutes on the 60th anniversary of the first goalscoring substitute. There’s been some breathless reaction on social media of Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard coming off the bench, scoring and assisting each other, in Arsenal’s impressive 2-0 win over Athletic Club in Bilbao. They did brilliantly, and follow a long line of super-subs.
Substitutes were first introduced into the Football League on August 21, 1965, when Keith Peacock came on for Charlton Athletic against Bolton Wanderers. A few minutes later, up at Holker Street, Bob Knox ran on for Barrow against Wrexham and scored. Not content with one entry in the history books, the versatile Knox replaced the concussed goalkeeper Lionel Duffin against Doncaster Rovers four months later - and saved a penalty. Quite a busy year for the teenager. Opportunity Knox.
Knox was hailed in the North-West Evening Mail for a “safe pair of hands” and his “vital save” when he smothered Alick Jeffrey’s penalty given for a slight push by Keith Eddy (who went on to captain the New York Cosmos of Pele, Beckenbauer and Chinaglia and manage Toronto Blizzard). “It was just one of many peculiar decisions given by the referee who seemed determined to ruin what was a fairly good game in difficult conditions,” harrumphed the Evening Mail. Criticism of officials is nothing new.
Like goalscoring subs. Any stroll down memory lane inevitably finds David Fairclough, the original “super-sub” at Liverpool (and who played for Toronto the season after Eddy left). Fairclough was a selfless understudy for John Toshack particularly and occasionally Kevin Keegan and David Johnson.
“Super-sub strikes again,” declared the commentator Gerald Sinstadt after Fairclough came on for Toshack with 16 minutes remaining against St Etienne, ran on to Ray Kennedy’s lobbed pass, and raced through to send Liverpool into the European Cup final in 1977.