Clicking of the turnstiles pays for league overheads

I’m not trying to claim an assist, you understand, but I’d just like to state for the record that I’d raised the subject of overhead kicks at Turner’s Cross last week some time before Colin Healy lit up the night with his sensational exhibition of that fine art.

It was late in the first half, when an otherwise absorbing game had briefly gone a little flat, that myself and a colleague in the press box fell to discussing one of the seeming anomalies in the rules of football — the fact that a player can be penalised for raising his foot too high, whereas the overhead kick, when a player’s foot could not be higher, is not only deemed a legitimate move but, when it comes off, is regarded as, quite literally, one of the game’s highest achievements.

And rightly so — as Colin Healy duly confirmed by winning the game for Cork City against St Pats in spectacular fashion with just a couple of minutes left on the clock. Here was an almost textbook bicycle kick: Healy, back to goal with his eyes firmly on the ball as it fell from a height; his body horizontal in the air as he made the perfect connection; and then the shot itself, from a tight angle, possessing the power and accuracy to arrow into the far top corner.