Sporting Cockups That Turn Out Perfect

How many times do we see sporting cock ups with disastrous results. This story however is true and was not meant to be but more of a miscommunication of sorts. The year is 1995 and the venue is Elland Road where Tottenham are playing Everton in the FA Cup semi final.

Everton are leading the game by 2 goals to 1 when the Everton player Paul Rideout goes down injured. The medical staff run on like they always do and Joe Royle turns to Daniel Amokachi and tells him to warm up. This is normal as the player will then get up from the bench and warm up alongside the pitch.

Paul Rideout was playing his first game back from injury after recovering from injured knee ligaments. Paul had been carried off and taken to the far side of the field to check if he was ok to continue. He gave the thumbs up to say he was alright to continue and Daniel took that as he was now being subbed and ran onto the field.

The fourth official raises the board and the substitution is now complete. Paul Rideout has been subbed and there is nothing anyone can now do about this. This was truly Joe Royle's WTF moment as this was not the plan. Daniel hadn't scored one goal for Everton since his home debut in September and this was 7 months later lol.

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As Joe Royle later commented saying he wanted to first wait and see if Paul was good to continue before making any changes. It was the best sub that I didn't do as Daniel went on to score two goals ensuring Everton won the game and proceed to the final which they won against Manchester United.

Daniel as a player will always be remembered for that day at Elland Road as his goal scoring wasn't the most fluent. He made 43 appearances for Everton over the two years he was at the club and only scored 10 goals. As a striker that isn't good reading and would have been considered a flop but will always be remembered for the cock up and the WTF moment.

Daniel like so many players are bought more out of speculation if they have a good World Cup. He played and starred in Nigeria's team at the 94 World Cup when Everton offered 5 Million for him. In those days that was a lot of money and would expect a decent return in the goal column. Instead an out of shape unfit player arrived 3 months later. Today players have to undergo medical tests etc so it protects the club from this sort of thing.