From Arsenal’s Michael Thomas to Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, Pinchbeck author John Boland charts the highs and lows of last-gasp goals in new football book

There is no greater drama in football than a last-gasp winner, as John Boland’s new book sets out to prove.

From Michael Thomas to Sergio Aguero, the self-professed soccer ‘geek’ has always loved the thrills, tension and heartbreak that one stoppage-time moment can conjure up.

And despite his own beloved team finding themselves on the receiving end enough times over the years, John had made it his mission to chart the joy and despair as matches, tournaments and even league titles turn on one piece of brilliance in soon-to-be-released 90+2: Last Minute Moments That Changed Football.

“Going back to my childhood, I always had the geeky reputation of being a stats man when it came to football,” said John, who lives in Pinchbeck.

“Throughout secondary school I loved football and played on the school fields all the time.

“When I was eight years old I remember watching the 1989 title race, which I vividly remember as one of my formative football moments, between Arsenal and Liverpool at Anfield.

“With two goals needed to win the title and the two teams playing on the same pitch, that was a moment that stayed in my mind.”

With the Gunners leading 1-0 late into that memorable match, the First Division trophy looked set to remain in the North West.

But with the clock ticking down Michael Thomas prodded home a second for Arsenal in one of the most dramatic conclusions to an English league campaign.

While that enthralling winner left a lasting impression on a young John, the idea of documenting the sport’s greatest ever finales only came recently.

“It was during those tough evenings in the pandemic when I just started scribbling down on a notepad the big games I remembered over the years, and was struck by how many big moments started to go down on paper,” he said.

“I jumped from that 1989 game, the young lad falling in love with football and a last-minute title decider.

“Then over the years they came back to me; David Beckham’s winner to get England to the 2002 World Cup, everyone probably remembers the Aguero one which won Man City the title.

“That was the basis and, from there, I just started looking around.”

Research comes naturally to John, who has a degree in Modern History from Cambridge, but the deeper he delved the more exciting his research became.

“I’ve got title wins, relegation battles, Champions League matches, international matches. I just find that at every level there was a wonderful story in there,” added the performance consultant, who has previously written on a variety of topics from the Iraq War to Brexit.

“I found some incredibly quirky stories, like the Norwegian title race that was decided by someone scoring their hat-trick goal in the last minute to win on goal difference, which is just unbelievable.

“When you look at some of the South American and African tournaments, you find so much.

“It’s not just simply a factoid book, it’s trying to weave the emotions and narrative.”

As a Dublin-born Celtic fan, John knows all too well that for every last-gasp moment of jubilation there’s a team who have had glory snatched from them.

“In the book I’ve had to write about two traumatic title deciders, in 2003 and 2005, where Celtic lost the title in the last minute to Rangers,” he explained.

“There were just so many experiences as a fan and a general lover of football, so thought there’s something in this.

“So as the pandemic went on it kept me out of trouble with my wife (Abbe) in the evenings. Then it got to the summer of 2022, we were away on a family holiday and I just started to weave it into a story.”

Charting stoppage-time moments has become a labour of love for John, who now writes a blog covering late, late incidents.

There are hopes that the information still being collected will be able to form the basis of a sequel cataloguing not just vital goals but also impactful penalties, red cards and incidents.

But there was one story close to home that Peterborough-raised John felt deserved a re-write of his original manuscript; the Posh’s League One play-off semi-final second leg clash at Sheffield Wednesday in May last year, where Liam Palmer’s 98th minute finish saw the hosts claw back an 4-0 first-leg deficit at the death before going on to win the match on penalties, the Owls later securing promotion to the Championship.

“Every week there’s agony and ecstasy somewhere,” John added.

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“You need the lows to appreciate the highs. That’s the beauty of football.”

90+2: Last Minute Moments That Changed Football, published by Pitch Publishing, will be released on February 5 and available at Amazon or in WH Smith, Waterstones and Blackwell’s.

You can follow John’s latest updates on X/Twitter via @lategreatgoals or on his blog ninetyplustwo.substack.com.