September 13 – A Wright Touch | On This Football Day

September 13 – A Wright Touch

WHEN a young Ian Wright was spending a week in the slammer after not paying his motoring fines you’d have got a decent price on him becoming the all-time leading goalscorer top for one of the world’s biggest clubs.

If there’s one thing sport delivers better than any other facet of life though, it’s a rags-to-riches story and that’s just what young Wrighty gave us today in 1997 when he broke Cliff Bastin’s 50-year-old Arsenal goalscoring record.

We’ve already brought you the story of when the plastering industries greatest ever footballer was summoned to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen, but for today’s story we’ll keep to on-the-pitch matters (although a couple of snide digs at his TV career may well sneak in at some point).

The day that Wrighty cemented his place in Arsenal folklore came when Arsenal were facing Bolton at Highbury. For the previous four weeks Wright had been standard on 177 goals after his brace against Coventry at the start of the 1997/98 season.

When Alan Thompson gave Bolton an early lead it looked like another day frustration for the Woolwich-born frontman, but when Wright latched onto a pass from strike-partner Ian Wright he fired in the equaliser and ripped off his shirt to reveal a t-shirt saying ‘179 – Just Done It!’, which would’ve been fine, except for the fact it was only his 178th goal.

Still, it didn’t take long for him to put it right, as he slotted home again five minutes later. Wanting to make a proper day out of it, Wright bagged his third in the second half to ensure the match ball was his.

Wright would finish his Arsenal career with 185 goals, but his record would not prove to last as long as Bastin’s as Thierry Henry va-va-voomed his way to 226 goals for the Gooners over the next ten years.

In 1998 Wright left Highbury to fit in a spot of journeyman-ism at the end of his career, leading the line for West Ham, Forest, Celtic and then Burnley before taking his place on the BBC pundit sofa to act as chief cheerleader for a certain young Manchester City right-winger.

Earlier this year he parted ways with the Beeb claiming they treated him a ‘jester’ before pitching up on the new series of Gladiators to prove he could show even Alanis Morissette a thing or two about irony.

We’d rather remember him doing his thing on the pitch, so have a gander at the man himself recalling his favourite ever goals in a top 5 list that Gooner fan Nick Hornby would be proud of. See which player was blowing out the candles today here and we’ll be back tomorrow for more of the same so don’t go changing.