It was long a highlight of the football calendar when, every May, on the final day of the season, supporters would be allowed to swarm onto their team’s pitch. This annual frolic was a rite of spring, like Morris dancing or chasing wheels of cheese down steep hills – and it was glorious fun.

This annual frolic was a rite of spring, like Morris dancing or chasing wheels of cheese down steep hills

This annual frolic was a rite of spring, like Morris dancing or chasing wheels of cheese down steep hills

Even though they have been banned for almost four decades, I still find myself at this time of the season recalling those old pitch invasions. One episode in particular lives in the memory as perhaps the most joyous ending to a football match I ever saw, as well as one of the strangest. And that was the final match played by Liam Brady, some 36 years ago this month.

Brady, a skilful midfielder, had spells in Italy, at Juventus, Sampdoria and Inter Milan, and played many times for Ireland, but was best known here for his time at Arsenal, most memorably his role in their classic 1979 3-2 FA Cup win over Manchester United. But if that final had had an exciting ending it was still not nearly as dramatic as the final kick of Brady’s career.

By 5 May 1990, he was 34, in his third year at West Ham, then in the old second division, and Brady had announced his intention to retire. This end-of-season home game, at their smaller and more intense old ground, the Boleyn at Upton Park, against Wolves, was to be his swansong.

Late in the second half, with West Ham cruising at 3-0, Brady received a pass just inside the Wolves half, and advanced on their penalty area. Two Wolves defenders tried half-heartedly to close him down but Brady threw a dummy to create enough space to shoot. He let rip with his left foot from 25 yards – what they call, in the football vernacular,........

© The Spectator