Footballer bags astonishing goal haul in local league at adult level

McCann was playing for the reserve side in division three against St Patrick’s of Castlederg – once the club of Liverpool star Conor Bradley

Football can be a funny old game. Some days the ball rolls your way while other days nothing goes right, no matter how hard you try. It’s fair to say Enniskillen Galaxy player Barry ‘Billy’ McCann had one of his better days last weekend in the Fermanagh and Western Football League.

The 39-year-old striker is no stranger to finding the net in the local leagues for a number of junior football sides, but he has never had a day like this. McCann was playing for the reserve side in division three against St Patrick’s of Castlederg – once the club of Liverpool star Conor Bradley.

They could have done with someone of that quality at the back on Saturday to try and get to grips with McCann and Co.

‘Billy’ opened the scoring after just three minutes and notched four more goals in the first half. His teammate Gareth Dykes also got on the scoresheet to make it 6-0 by the break.

If St Patrick’s thought Galaxy might have taken their foot off the gas after the interval, they were sadly mistaken. McCann was here to fill his boots and he scored four more goals himself in a 12 minute period to make it an astonishing nine goals in the 90 minutes – none of them penalties.

A social media post said: “Congratulations to James Moore and Billy McCann on Man of the Match performances for the First and Reserve teams. Only the 9 goals for young Billy. Thanks to The Firehouse for sponsoring our Man of the match for the year.”

It had some locals searching the record books, but it’s well short of the all-time record in professional football. That belongs to Frenchman Stefan Dembicki who netted an astonishing 16 times for RC Lens during their 32-0 victory over Auby Asturies in the 1942 Coupe de France.

McCann’s haul is similar to that of Manchester City and Norway striker Erling Haaland who scored nine goals in a FIFA U20 World Cup match in 2019.

Archie Thompson (Australia) holds the record for the most goals in a single international match, scoring 13 goals in Australia’s 31-0 victory over American Samoa in 2001.

Joe Payne holds the record for the most goals in an English Football League game, scoring 10 goals in the Luton Town vs. Bristol Rovers match in 1936.