EUROGOALS IS A SATELLITE TV PROGRAMME I really enjoy watching, with its quite superb round up of European League and Cup action and in one recent episode I watched in great amusement as a Dutch goalkeeper, kicking from hand, launched a ball upfield which took one bounce and went over the head of the opposition keeper and into the net for a goal!

Of course that scene immediately transported me back in time to a wondrous occasion at Easter Road when one of my first ever Hibernian heroes, Andrew Goram Esquire, did exactly the same thing in a League match against Greenock Morton.  The unfortunate visiting keeper was a young lad named David Wylie who, like Goram, is still playing I believe although I'll bet he's never forgotten that day!

Thinking of Andy Goram made me slip into reminiscing mode as I recalled some of my favourite memories of him.  When he arrived from Oldham my first inclination was to wonder why Alex Miller had spent so much money on a player who would surely only be playing in the reserves as there was no way he could be replacing Alan Rough in goals.  Roughie had been a rock for Hibs and had won them many points in his time at Easter Road, as well as practically keeping them in the Premier League single handedly.  Of course, I was wrong as Goram slotted into the first team virtually straight away.

This did not, I have to confess, endear me to the Englishman as Roughie was a star in my view but not long after Goram joined up I was fortunate enough to meet him at a charity do and I found him to be good humoured, charming and a HUGE fan of Alan Rough!  As the new man sat and explained to me what a honour it was for him to be working with Rough and to be learning from the Maestro, I found it difficult not to warm to him.

As a keeper he went on to prove to any doubters that he was more than able for the job and after his debut game against Dunfermline, when we humped the Pars quite easily and Goram only had one save to make in the whole game, he must have wondered if it was always going to be that easy playing in the Premier League!  In the very next game he learned differently as it was a Derby match and he was kept kinda busy but I am delighted to say not as busy as Henry Smith as Hibs won 2 - 1 to end a long running hoodoo held over us by our rivals!

Fat Bloke looking like a .... fat bloke

Goram might have played in Europe for Hibs and made umpteen appearances for Scotland in a distinguished career which saw him keep goal in stadiums throughout the world but I still hold dear one or two personal memories of the man.   The first involves his long running feud with Stevie Kirk, then of Motherwell.   Kirk had gone in late and hard on Goram in a game which took place not long after the keeper joined Hibs and from that moment on there was no love lost between them but my favourite recollection of that confrontation is the look on Andy's face when he saved a penalty from the big Lanarkshire huddy and then laughed in his face immediately afterwards.  Kirk was stunned, both at Goram's save and the keepers' reaction and his face was a picture as Andy gave him the eye!

The other memory I have involves his appearance against Hibs in the 1991 Skol Cup Semi Final at Hampden.  He'd said he left Hibs because he wanted to win trophies and here he was being knocked out of one at the first attempt by his former team mates!  As the final whistle blew I gave in to the fickleness which is surely displayed by every football fan as I shouted to him that he should have stayed at Hibs if he wanted to win a medal!

As time wore on and Goram won his fair share of medals at Ibrox he endured a number of problems both on and off the park and of course he fair piled on the weight whilst his teeth seemed to decay and fall out at an alarming rate.  At this point I had re-christened him Fat Bloke, after a character in the Harry Enfield show, as he'd piled on the beef but still had that jovial expression on his face most of the time!