Great headers of the ball?

My pub team used to play against the local mental hospital team. They beat us 4-0 one day.....with all their goals coming from headers.

Derek Johnstone....none better.
 
Don't forget . . .

Marvellous Marvin Andrews!

When we played Forfar under McCoist and they had big Marv it was absolute torture to watch.

Constantly playing high balls up the park and the big man was winning every single one. You just couldn't beat the guy to a header. Think it was only our players and McCoist who didn't realise it.
 
My dad always maintains that Derek Johnstone is the finest header of the ball he has ever seen. In my era, it has to be Mark Hateley in an attacking sense and Marvin Andrews or Terry Butcher defensively. An underrated header of the ball would be Kevin Drinkell, he was very good in the air despite not being particularly tall.
 
My dad always maintains that Derek Johnstone is the finest header of the ball he has ever seen. In my era, it has to be Mark Hateley in an attacking sense and Marvin Andrews or Terry Butcher defensively. An underrated header of the ball would be Kevin Drinkell, he was very good in the air despite not being particularly tall.


Maurice Johnston would come into this category as well.
 
Peter Crouch, Andy Carroll, Alan Shearer, Dion Dublin, Les Ferdinand from the EPL in recent times as forwards, internationally guys like Klose, Ballack, Bierhoff & Ronaldo gets some amount of headed goals.

A remember big Gullit being handy in the air a few years back.
 
Jimmy Miller, Colin Stein, Derek Johnstone & Mark Hateley all wonderful in the blue

I have to say Allan Gilzean was in another class though -

He's the only player I've ever watched send the goal keeper the wrong way with a header
It was either against Wales or Northern Ireland at Hampden -
one of these where the ball hangs in the air and you can see Gilzean hovering - keeper and defenders rush to cover in the obvious direction - only for him to blast it in the opposite corner -
 
A lot of great players mentioned here. As a youngster growing up in Luton, I have to mention Malcolm MacDonald. A great striker, who could run, had a terrific left peg, the longest throw in football at the time and must've scored about half his goals with his head. 3 out of the 5 he scored for England against Cyprus were headers.
 
Wullie Bauld was " King of the Nod " when I was a lad , with Lawrie Reilly not far behind .
For the Rangers , Jimmy Millar could stick a few away with the heid .
 
There was a big Dundonian lad back in the early seventies who couldn't half head a football. I'm told he scored a winner in a cup final at the age of 16, popping up between two experienced defenders to nod the winner for a famous team who play in beautiful blue shirts........DJ was his name.
 
Derek Johnstone.

Best I've ever seen.
Close the thread. Forget all those defenders whose only aim was to clear the ball as far from their goal as possible. I've never seen anyone better than DJ. Christ knows how good he'd have been if he could have kept the weight off.
 
Recall Richard Gough scoring important headed goals. In a 1-0 game at Easter Road, when Hibs had a decent team and again against Celtic when Gough and Gascgoine both scored. However, when we consider the number of goals that we have lost from crosses in recent seasons, it underlines how effective a defensive header of the ball that Richard Gough was..
 
Close the thread. Forget all those defenders whose only aim was to clear the ball as far from their goal as possible. I've never seen anyone better than DJ. Christ knows how good he'd have been if he could have kept the weight off.

There's been a thread or ten over the years on this subject!
Johnstone didn't just head the ball, he often passed it from his head.
Seen him do this regularly, knocking one down to Greig who hadn't moved forward to where DJ had pointed.
Never seen this again till Butcher, and haven't seen it since.
 
Mark Hateley for me. Always remember a goal he scored versus Hearts(?) at home corner comes in, he thuds it in with a header, that hard you actually heard the thud on the highlights show.
 
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