[Albion] Albion's best ever header of a ball

[Papa Lazarou]

Agree for defensive headers,

Ulloa may be for attacking headers.

No contender for glancing headers for goals.

Bobby Z was good at glancing headers... but a lot of that was down to Paul Watson's delivery.

 

[Exile]

My Albion 'lifetime' only dates to 1982, but for me it is definitely Shane Duffy, with Steve Foster a close second. Duffy is incredible.

Forwards, probably Murray or Ulloa.

 

[Seagull58]

I stood in the North Stand as a kid watching Alex Dawson wind up keepers before corners were taken. Then, as siad prreviously,if the ball was in the right place either the ball, the keeper or both ended up in the net. I wouldn't want to choose between Foster and Duffy for defensive headed excellence.

 

[Peter Grummit]

We used to call Butters 'magnet head' due to the way he got his head to most things. Fozzie was similar.

But Duffy beats them all. One of my favourite moments currently is when the opposition clear the ball and you KNOW Duffy's going to return it with interest. 'SHANE'S UP'.



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[drofnud]

Another vote for Alex Dawson. Broke his nose so many times it was squashed onto his face. Massive neck muscles. Bullet headers from standing starts. Harder than most shots. And with the old leather footballs which, when wet, weighed like a medicine ball. No wonder old time players are going down with dimentia. 26 goals in 57 appearances.

 

[wallyback]

Agreed on Alex!

Duffy literally head and shoulders better than Foster.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Duffy is astonishing right now. Was he this good last year? I really thought he would struggle in the premier league, as teams dribbled and passed their way round him - but he has been a revelation (to me at least) starting right from game 1. I couldn't believe how dominant he was in that first half against Man City and he's just carried it on. Part of it I suppose is that the premier league is far more aerial than I expected.

 

[Gritt23]

I thought Tommy Elphick was a very dominant aerial presence.

 

[Spiros]

Although not necessarily best ever headers, two big header related memories for me are (1) a bullet headed goal from outside the box by Steve Piper. I think it was against Millwall when we cam from 2-0 at half time to win 3-2, and (2) playing Stockport on a freezing day at the Goldstone when 5'11" Paul McCarthy won every header against the 6'7" Kevin Francis

 

[junior]

Andy Crosby.

 

[jasetheace]

If the category was "flick on" headers for others to score, then of course Spider would be up there

 

[driller]

Steve penny or Paul brooker?

 

[The-Libertine]

I'm too young to have seen Alex Dawson play, but I have really enjoyed reading all the comments about him. For so many people to have such great memories about a player who last played for the club over 45 years ago makes me realise that he must have been absolutely AWESOME!

 

[el punal]

Alex Dawson - the one man demolition derby of opposing goal keepers. Try to stop one of his headers and not only does the ball end up in the back of the net, so does the goalie who then continues his backward journey finishing somewhere close to the top of the Goldstone's North Stand.

 

[Beach Hut]

Foster was the best.

Gets my vote

 

[WATFORD zero]

Shane Duffy and my first ever Albion hero Alex Dawson. As a kid on the wall at the front of the north stand, when he attacked he was the most frightening human being I had ever seen.

 

[Weststander]

Ryan Harley. The warrior.

 

[The Upper Library]

Ryan Harley. The warrior.

Just seeing his name makes me angry!!!



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[Gwylan]

I'm too young to have seen Alex Dawson play, but I have really enjoyed reading all the comments about him. For so many people to have such great memories about a player who last played for the club over 45 years ago makes me realise that he must have been absolutely AWESOME!

Watford Zeros' description of him as the most frightening human he'd seen sounds about right. He must have been terrifying to defenders: he wasn't that tall - by CF standards - but he seemed to be made entirely of muscle, with a forehead of concrete.

Just looked at his record and he played nearly 400 league games, scoring better than a goal every two games - that's a decent record, particularly as nearly all were in the top two divisions. It's staggering that a player with that sort of scoring record didn't play for Scotland - imagine if they had a striker like that now, they'd build the side around him.

EDIT: Just been reading about him on the PNE fans page. There's one anecdote there about Gary Sprake having to use smelling salts as he was so terrified of facing him. It sounds far-fetched to me, but given the way that he treated goalies, not that unlikely

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I have a feling that Alex Dawson lived adjacent to Easthill Park in Portslade, and that occasionally we accidentally booted our ball over into his garden. I don't recall our ever going round to get it back.