One of the most infamous goals in Premier League history was scored on this day in 2009.
Liverpool travelled to in-form Sunderland for a game at the Stadium of Light looking to improve on their rocky form under Rafael Benitez following consecutive losses to Chelsea and Fiorentina in the UEFA Champions League.
Their opponents were showing signs of a good run, having won four consecutive home matches and drawn with Manchester United at Old Trafford in their previous game. Striker Darren Bent was in lethal goal-scoring form after his £16.5 million transfer from Tottenham during the summer, and he was determined to maintain his hot streak.
BEACH BOY @DarrenBent scored @SAFCofficial’s winner against Liverpool in October 2009 – via a beach ball #LIVSUN pic.twitter.com/je8OmEdZJ8
— Premier League (@premierleague) March 26, 2014
He duly did — just not in a way that anyone really expected.
The Sporting News looks back at the remarkable “beach-ball goal” that gave Sunderland a win over Liverpool, why the referee made a huge mistake, and who took responsibility for “the nightmare” incident.
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Darren Bent beach-ball goal: What happened in Sunderland vs. Liverpool?
The goal in question came with only five minutes on the clock, Steve Bruce’s Sunderland having started in positive fashion on the back of their decent run of form.
After Andy Reid had gone close inside two minutes, he turned provider for Bent. His cross from the right of the penalty area with his weaker foot was flicked on by Steed Malbranque and fell to Bent just inside the box. The striker struck the shot first time and it flew past goalkeeper Pepe Reina after deflecting off a Liverpool-branded beach ball that was sitting in the six-yard box next to defender Glen Johnson. You can watch the footage below.
Bent wheeled away to celebrate his eighth goal in nine Premier League matches, while Reina protested furiously, arguing the goal should have been disallowed. It wasn’t, and Sunderland would hold on to a 1-0 victory.
The striker later recalled to Sky Sports: “I didn’t connect with it that well but I knew it was going on target… Then it hit the beach ball and went in! But I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t think ‘oh my god, look what’s just happened,’ I just thought ‘it’s a goal!’ and ran off.
“I’ve seen the goal played back I don’t know how many times now and you look at the reactions on different peoples’ faces,” said Bent. “Pepe Reina’s face, Glen Johnson’s face, Jamie Carragher’s face… everyone is like ‘what’s happened here?!'”
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Why was the goal allowed to stand?
The referee that day was Mike Jones, who believed the ball had deflected in off the boot of Johnson and was therefore happy for the goal to stand. Had he known it hit the beach ball instead, he would have had to rule it out, call a halt to play, and restart the match with a drop-ball.
At full speed, you can make the argument that it was difficult to see whether Bent’s shot strikes Johnson, the beach ball, or both — and in the heady pre-VAR days, there was no replay system to correct the decision — but given the fact the beach ball is clearly blasted out of the way following the strike, it seemed like a fairly significant mistake.
Jeff Winter, a former Premier League referee, told The Telegraph: “I’m absolutely amazed that for a referee at that level of football, that between him, his assistant and the fourth official they didn’t see what had happened and give the correct decision.”
“Who gets the assist, you or the ball?” 😅
Darren Bent reflecting on his infamous beach ball goal ⛱ pic.twitter.com/MkcxxKjatM
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 12, 2024
“I remember the referee’s face at half-time when he came to see me,” Bent remembered. “He said, ‘Did it hit the ball?’. When I said, ‘Yeah’, there was panic in his face. He realised he’d made a bit of a mistake!
“Then Pepe Reina came up to me and was like, ‘It hit the ball! It hit the ball!’ and I was like, ‘I know!'”
Sunderland manager Bruce couldn’t resist a chuckle after the game, saying: “I thought it was a deflection off a player. It’s got Liverpool crests all over it. What a shame.”
‘I’m the one who did it… it’s my worst, worst nightmare’
One person who is never likely to forget the incident is the one responsible for the beach ball finding its way onto the pitch in the first place.
Liverpool fan Callum Campbell confessed to The Mirror in 2009 that he “just took a big swing” and sent it flying towards the penalty area, where it stayed. It didn’t even belong to him.
“I’m so, so sorry. This is my worst, worst nightmare,” he said. “When I got home, I went into the garden and threw up. I was physically sick — and that’s before the death threats started appearing on the internet the next day. How was I supposed to know what would happen? It was just a bit of fun, and if I could turn back the clock and do it differently, throw the ball into the crowd instead of on to the pitch, then I would.
“Television made it look like I lobbed the beach ball on to the pitch and straight away it hit the match ball. But the truth is, the game hadn’t started. The teams were just coming out, and the beach ball wasn’t even mine. I’d never seen one before. The crowd were bouncing it around above their heads, then it came my way, and I and knocked it towards the pitch. After that, the wind carried it into the net.
“I can’t believe it stayed there. It would have taken someone a couple of seconds to move it away, or put a foot on it and flatten it, but nobody bothered. And then it started to roll about, just at the wrong moment.”
