WHEN Glenn Hoddle trimmed down his 1998 World Cup squad, he famously left out Paul Gascoigne, who proceeded to smash up Hoddle’s hotel room, breaking chairs, lamps and injuring his foot in the process. Needless to say, he took the news pretty badly and his career never really recovered.

Another man that didn’t make the final cut was then-Coventry City striker Dion Dublin, but he dealt with his disappointment with in a slightly more composed manner. Today in 1998 he got back to work, scoring a hat-trick in Coventry City’s opening day win over Chelsea.

As Coventry prepare for another season in the top flight it’s easy to forget that until their relegation in 2001 that they were top-flight mainstays for 34 years after Jimmy Hill and his famous chin hoisted the club up from the lower leagues in the 1960s.

Dion Dublin’s four-and-a-half year spell at Highfield Road saw him establish himself as one of the top strikers in England after failing to win a regular place in the Manchester United team following his £1m move from Cambridge United in 1992, despite Fergie’s alleged envy of his “magnificent” physique, if the rumours are to be believed.

During the 1997/98 season Dublin bagged 23 goals for Coventry and was the Premier League’s joint leading scorer with Chris Sutton and Michael Owen which lead to an England call-up.



The lanky striker would only manage to win four caps for the national side, as England were remarkably well-stocked with up-front at the time, with Shearer, Owen, Sheringham and sometimes even Andy Cole all ahead in the pecking order.

Soon after his hat-trick against Chelsea, Dublin upset the Coventry faithful by moving across the midlands to Aston Villa in a £5.75m move. A rip-roaring start saw him score seven goals in his first three games, but things soon went sour when he suffered a life-threatening broken neck against Sheffield Wednesday. He went on to make a full recovery, but now has a permanent titanium plate in his neck as a legacy of the accident.

Dublin hung-up his boots at the end of last season and has now taken his seat on the SkySports old-boys club, so expect Jeff Stelling and company to be giving him a ribbing or two in the coming months.

See Dion’s cheekiest ever goal below and check out what else happened today here. Enjoy the start of the season this weekend and make sure you’re back tomorrow for more of the same.

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