Non-league team wins title with 80-yard goal

A football team has secured their league title with the help of one of the most bizarre assists of the season.

Dunston UTS required just one point against Guisborough Town to wrap up the Northern League Division One championship (the ninth tier of English football).

And they were given a helping hand just minutes into the game after a pitch-length shot bounced off the crossbar and into the path of a grateful Dunston player.

Liam Brooks will be awarded the assist, while Mark Fitzpatrick was the man to profit from the incident.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Tony Cleugh, who works in social media for the club, told the Press Association.

“As soon as Liam kicked it someone said ‘that’s going in, that one.’ And you thought ‘bloody hell, it might! It might actually go in!’

“I don’t know whether he (the goalkeeper) tried pushing it over the bar, but Mark did really well to try and anticipate.

“It could have been quite easy just to stand and watch it, but he was pretty much the only other one in the picture that was racing towards the goal.”

Guisborough equalised before half-time but two more goals from the home side secured the three points and the title.