Jimmy Meadows’ Hand of God

Diego Maradona’s ‘goal’ for Argentina against England was perhaps the most controversial incident in the whole of the World Cup. It must have brought memories back to Jimmy Meadows who once scored a similar goal in an F. A. Cup Tie against Lincoln City which completely transformed the course of the game some 35 years ago.

The first round of the F. A. Cup in 1950/1, Southport arrived at Sincil Bank for their clash with Lincoln with an undefeated run of 4 games to their credit. Jimmy Meadows scored for Southport after 21 minutes but Andy Graver equalised in 75 minutes. The teams in this drawn encounter were;

Lincoln City: White; Green; Young; Wright; Emery; Grummett; Troops; Garvie; Graver; Whittle and Finch

Southport: Anderson; Cookson; Reilly; Hitchen; Bellis; Hacking; Rothwell; Ross; Nuttall; Dainty and Meadows,

In the replay Southport played Eire International Peter Desmond in place of the injured Albert Dainty and Lincoln had Windle at outside left with Finch moving inside to the exclusion of Whittle.

Troops put Lincoln ahead in 11 minutes but Bernard Ross immediately equalised. With 20 minutes to go Troops put City in front and it remained that way until 3 minutes from the end. Then Meadows equalised in a goalmouth melee after he punched the ball through with his hand. The goal brought vigorous protests from the Lincoln players but the referee had no hesitation in awarding it. In a breathtaking finish Jimmy Nuttall notched the winner in the last 30 seconds. The crowd went frantic when Southport won when 3 minutes earlier they appeared to have lost all hope. There were 9,900 spectators at the first game at Lincoln with 5,718 present for the replay despite a Tuesday afternoon kick off.

I have no doubt that Jimmy Meadows would have been one of the few Englishmen to have forced a wry smile at Maradona’s goal.

MICHAEL BRAHAM.

The above article is reproduced verbatim from the Sandgrounder matchday programme in 1986.