The Championship is often known as one of the most competitive leagues in the world, thanks partly to its array of unbelievable goals scored over the years.
While it plays second fiddle to the Premier League in terms of its standing in the pyramid, the second tier more than makes up for that in its unpredictability. This comes in the form of goals too, some that are barely believable and defy description. This season has seen fewer goals than in previous years, so let’s take a look back on some of the greatest and most memorable goals from the last two decades of Championship football, in no particular order.
Fernando Forestieri (Norwich City 2-2 Sheffield Wednesday – 19/04/2019)
The Wednesday man picked up the ball over 30 yards from goal, requiring a slice of luck to keep hold of possession. Once getting past Tom Trybull though, with little room in the middle of the park, he unleashed an absolute rocket into the top left-hand corner of the net to score sensationally against the league leaders. The power of this goal is what made it so special, with a ferocious strike giving the Canaries’ keeper Tim Krul absolutely no chance of stopping it. It was a strike that came out of absolutely nothing too, coming against the Championship leaders who were on a ten-game unbeaten streak at the time.
Norwich scored a wonderful free-kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time to level the game, but this fixture will always be remembered for the even greater goal scored earlier in the contest.
Adam Reach (Sheffield Wednesday 1-1 Leeds United – 28/09/2018)
A man with an eye for the spectacular, Reach is another Owl who appears on this list. With the ball bouncing 25 yards from goal, he decides to go for a spectacular dipping volley that crashes in off the post in some style. This goal will be remembered for some time, given how the goal came about. A throw in from the right-hand side looked like it would cause the Whites’ defence no issues as the ball headed towards the middle of the park, but Reach had other ideas. Bailey Peacock-Farrell was left scrambling across his goal, shocked at the audacity of the Wednesday man to try his luck from that range.
Again, this is another contest that saw an impressive strike at the other end, with Mateusz Klich scoring with an excellent effort. But Reach took the headlines in this Yorkshire derby.
Scott Sinclair (Swansea City 3-2 Nottingham Forest – 19/03/2011)
No list is complete without a genuine superb individual goal, and that is what Scott Sinclair provided on this afternoon in Wales. He expertly scored the opening goal, picking the ball up right on the touchline, just inside Forest territory. He immediately ran past two away defenders, before twisting and turning on the edge of the area. With Forest having defenders back, it looked like the chance was fading, until he went wide, taking the ball beyond two men and firing back across goal into the far corner. The finish itself wasn’t easy at all after such a run, requiring great precision to find the bottom corner of the net.
This result had big implications in the Championship table. Nottingham Forest remained inside the Play-Off places, but fate was taken out of their hands, while the Swans remained only a point adrift of the top two, but they stayed ahead of Welsh rivals Cardiff City.
Nathaniel Chalobah (Leicester City 1-2 Watford – 26/04/2013)
This goal came weeks before the pair met in that iconic Play-Off Semi-Final, which is, of course included in this list. But this game will also be remembered for an unbelievable strike scored by Nathaniel Chalobah. The England youth international made a chance out of nothing, as the ball dropped into his path 35 yards from the goal. Despite having two Leicester players either side of him, he met the ball at the perfect time and struck an unstoppable effort that Kasper Schmeichel had no chance of saving, fired right into the roof of the net. That gave the Hornets a two-goal lead, which was enough for them to take all three points.
Watford still had aspirations of the top two at this point of the campaign, while Leicester were aiming for a top-six place. The Hornets needed to leapfrog Hull, who were a point ahead with two games remaining, which they were unable to do, while the Foxes sneaked into the top six in dramatic circumstances on the final day.
Ruben Neves (Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 Derby County – 12/04/2018)
Often included in conversations about the greatest ever player in the second tier, moments like this are why. From a corner, the ball was headed out to the midfielder, who took a touch that actually set himself backwards. But his next action was to send an unbelievable dipping volley into the Derby net. There is actually a view of the goal from the away end that evening, where a Rams fan jeers as he connects with the volley, thinking that the ball was going well over. They obviously weren’t familiar with Neves’s ability from range, but even by his standards, the amount the ball dipped was utterly sensational. Wolves went on to win the Championship title that term, moving two points away from promotion on that Wednesday evening. They were widely considered to have one of the best squads in Championship history, showcased by the fact that Neves was playing international football for Portugal while being in England’s second division.
That goal on that April evening almost seven years ago made it six for the season for Neves, all of which came from outside the eighteen-yard box that campaign, illustrating how frequently he would find the net from distance. For that reason, he has already gone down in Championship folklore.
Souleymane Doukara (Leeds United vs Nottingham Forest – 25/01/2017)
This was another absolute cracker, reaching incredible pace. Souleymane Doukara produced this moment of pure brilliance against Nottingham Forest in January 2017. Following a corner, which was headed towards the Leeds man, he fired the ball back in with interest, scoring in sensational style. With relatively little backlift, he was able to generate an obscene amount of power to find the top corner, leaving all those inside Elland Road, including his teammates, absolutely stunned.
Interestingly, on this day, Chris Wood was on the scoresheet for the Whites in a 2-0 win. Now, of course, he is playing for Forest, but that was his 20th goal of the campaign, taking Leeds into third place in the Championship.
John McGinn (Aston Villa vs Sheffield Wednesday – 22/09/2018)
In a game between two giants in the EFL, it should be of little surprise that a goal of this quality was scored. Early in the 2018/19 campaign, when it felt like the Championship was reaching its peak for top-quality goals, McGinn added one of the best with a superb effort from range. Like many of the above goals, the ball was headed away by a Wednesday defender inside the area, falling to McGinn on the edge of the area. He set his body superbly to fire a volley that went crashing in off the bar, despite the best efforts of Cameron Dawson who stood no chance. Unfortunately, Villa went on to lose the game in Steve Bruce’s 100th game in charge of the club, and they were booed off the pitch.
The Villa man still remains with the West Midlands outfit, but this was his first ever goal in English football. In terms of his career at Villa, it will take something very special to beat it!
Troy Deeney (Watford 3-1 Leicester City – Play-Off Semi Final 2nd Leg – 12/05/2013)
It a list of iconic moments, this goal tops the list for sure. It may have not been the best goal in terms of quality, but this moment will go down in folklore. For those who have unbelievably never seen the goal, lets set the scene. Watford’s Play-Off Semi-Final against Leicester City was heading for extra time after the Hornets had levelled the tie on aggregate. But in stoppage time, Marco Cassetti was adjudged to have committed a foul on Anthony Knockaert and a controversial penalty was awarded for the visitors. Manuel Almunia made a superb double stop to deny Knockaert from the spot, and what happened next was incredible. Watford broke down the right at the other end, catching Leicester off guard as Fernando Foresteri delivered a ball to the back post. With the Foxes keeper Kasper Schmeichel failing to clear, substitute Jonathan Hogg headed the ball back across goal for Troy Deeney to emphatically smash home and spark the wildest scenes at Vicarage Road.
The goal remains the most iconic moment in Championship and EFL history, and the likes may never be seen again. It is exactly the type of drama that the Play-Offs were introduced to create, living long in the memory for the Watford fans. They did though lose to Crystal Palace in the Final. Leicester meanwhile won the title the following year, pulled off the great escape in 2015 and three years following on from that iconic game, they were Premier League Champions.
Bobby Zamora (Derby County 0-1 Queens Park Rangers – Play-Off Final – 24/05/2014)
In terms of goals in the final, this will be difficult to beat. Again, the quality of the goal is not what makes this, but the context surrounding it. In what is known as the richest game in football, the Hoops had been reduced to ten men just before the hour mark after Gary O’Neil was dismissed for a late challenge. The Rams had been on top before that point and ramped up the tempo with Rob Green keeping QPR in the contest. With extra-time looming, Rangers struck with their only shot on target. Junior Hoilett kept what appeared a lost cause alive in the corner, dispossessing Jake Buxton. As the famous commentary goes, he put the ball into an area, which Richard Keogh could only play to Bobby Zamora, who rifled home in the final minute of the game. One half of Wembley was sent into ecstasy, while the Derby players and fans dropped to the floor, with a season’s work boiling down to one of the final moments in the 49th game.
This was Bobby Zamora’s second Play-Off Final winner. Back in 2005 at the Millennium Stadium, he scored the only goal again as West Ham won by a single goal against Preston North End to win promotion back to the Premier League.
Dean Windass (Bristol City 0-1 Hull City – Play-Off Final – 24/05/2008)
While the above two goals were special in their own right, this had extra quality along with the storyline. Fraizer Campbell’s work in the goal is actually underrated, as he did the hard work inside the area by holding off numerous challenges before picking out an amber shirt on edge of the box. All Windass needed to do was simply pull his leg back and rifle in a tremendous volley. Simple, right?! It quickly became one of the greatest Play-Off Final goals ever. There could not have been a more fitting goalscorer either than Hull-born Windass, firing his boyhood club to the Premier League for the first time.
Hull had never previously played Premier League football in their 104-year history, and at the time were the largest city in Europe to have never seen top-flight football. Rugby had been predominant instead, until the Tigers embarked on some of their most successful times in the past two decades. His son, Josh Windass, also scored a Play-Off winner for Sheffield Wednesday in 2023.
