Infamous own goal record inspires musician to record song

Inspired by a bizarre football match over four decades ago, Torbay musician Ian Churchward has recorded a song paying tribute to the fastest own goal in Football League history.

The scorer was Pat Kruse and, you guessed it, he was wearing the famous yellow and blue of Torquay United at the time, netting past his own goalkeeper after just six seconds in a Plainmoor meeting with Cambridge United in January, 1977.

Bizarre turned to ludicrous when the Gulls conceded a second own goal to trail 2-0 at the interval. Torquay fought back, however, to earn a 2-2 draw, thus scoring all four goals in a game they failed to win.

It was enough to inspire Ian, who recorded ‘The Fastest Own Goal’ on an album called ‘Thrilling Blunder Stories’.

“Going back to the late 1970s, I remember a close friend of mine showing me the Guinness Book of Records and saying Torquay United were in the book for scoring the fastest own goal,” said Ian. “Sure enough, it was in there, and that always stuck in my mind.

“A good few years later, there was a regular fanzine published on the club and they had a section called ‘Time Tunnel’, which looked back on memorable Torquay United game.

“One of the featured games included the fastest own goal and, with a bit of further digging, I discovered Torquay United actually scored two own goals in that game and were losing 2-0 at half-time. Incredibly, the game ended 2-2, and Torquay had scored all four goals.

“I had always wanted to write a song about the game and finally got round to recording it last year. There is also another Torquay United-inspired song on the Torquay Pageant album, called ‘Theatre of Pain’.”

The Fastest Own Goal can be found on YouTube or by visiting Ian’s band website www.thelegendary10seconds.co.uk