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Chris Wright, Toe Poke writer
While defeats for Manchester City and Arsenal allowed Liverpool to move two points clear at the top of the Premier League on Saturday, there was no shortage of action elsewhere in England.
You may have missed the action from this weekend’s round of games in the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division, for example, where Bearsted’s game against local non-league rivals Fisher produced one of the greatest saves ever made on a football pitch.
The plaudits go to Bearsted goalkeeper Frankie Leonard, who defied a calamitous sequence of events only to pull off what he himself described as the “weirdest save I’ve made ever” in his career.
It all began with Leonard finding himself caught out of position after attempting to clear a long ball upfield only for a Fisher player to pounce on it and hoist a high shot back toward the unguarded net.
With hero mode engaged, Leonard went scampering after the bouncing ball only to be momentarily flummoxed when the ball came bobbling back off the crossbar above his head, forcing the stopper to hit the brakes and perform an emergency U-turn.
In a further dramatic twist, Leonard’s studs then became snagged in the net as he attempted to change direction, which caused him to lose his footing at the worst possible moment as the ball sat invitingly in the goalmouth, just waiting to be gobbled up by the onrushing Fisher striker.
However, with the odds dwindling, Leonard managed to fling himself backwards back across the line and somehow thwart his opponent with a flailing limb despite having to drag his net and half the goal frame behind him.
When you get your boot stuck in the net but still manage to make a save @fleonard04_ pic.twitter.com/qn6Uc2vBkp
— Tracey Williams (@Fralbiemum4) November 2, 2024
Leonard has ambitions of becoming a professional goalkeeper, and prospective employers were given an even closer look at his abilities with the reverse angle of his heroics as captured by Fisher from behind the goal.
— Fisher Film Crew (@FisherFilmCrew) November 2, 2024
As Leonard himself remarked in his post with clips of the incident, which has been viewed more than a million times on Twitter, it most certainly ranks as one of the strangest saves made by a goalkeeper that we have ever witnessed.
Just to cap it all off, this all comes just a couple of weeks after Leonard unexpectedly played up front for Bearsted and bagged a hat trick in a 5-0 cup victory over Abbeymead.
When you’re hot, you’re hot!
