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Radcliffe’s Rio Clegg goes viral with ‘absolutely outrageous Puskas Award contender’

Radcliffe’s Rio Clegg goes viral with ‘absolutely outrageous Puskas Award contender’ against Leamington on Saturday afternoon.

Leamington described in in their match report: “Clegg opened the scoring with an outrageous goal on 49 minutes. The youngster has been a real find by Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley, and slalomed into the box, putting at least three Brakes men on the deck before cheekily lifting his shot high over Brearey and into the net.”

Radcliffe summed it up “Rio Clegg is played through, he puts three players on their backside before chipping the goalkeeper – INCREDIBLE!”

The result leaves Radcliffe sitting 5th in the National League North table with 36 points from 21 games, while Leamington are bottom with 13 points from 21 games and are 7 points from safety.

You can watch a video of it below, got to say, that is truly special…

Leamington had levelled on 58 minutes, Seb Thompson from range, then shortly after, Michael Afuye saw his corner headed in at the back post by Brad Roscoe to put Radcliffe back in front, and turned out to be the winning goal.

Radcliffe also saw two chances come back off the crossbar, twice in two minutes, on the quarter of an hour mark, before 10 minutes later, Leamington also saw a penalty penalty down to a seventh consecutive National League North defeat at Radcliffe.

Radcliffe’s Anthony Johnson said, per Bury Times: “It’s that good, we are running out of superlatives for the boy,” Johnson said after the final whistle.

“I actually thought his general performance today was nowhere near good enough for his standards, but it doesn’t have to be when you’ve got the ability he’s got to turn it on in moments like that.

“If you try and coach him, you will lose the stuff that makes Rio, Rio. You couldn’t tell me a single goal this season he’s scored that was a tap in, they all come from a little bit of magic.

“Nowadays, it’s all 30-yard screamers and we don’t see many goals like that. It’s out of this world quality, it’s unbelievable.”

“I thought first half we were very good,” he reflected. “They entered our box probably twice – the penalty and a shot they had in the very first minute.

“I thought we controlled proceedings in the first half very well, but there’s almost a sense of frustration around the ground that it was 0-0 at half time, or we weren’t scoring and taking our opportunities because they were bottom of the league.

“It doesn’t work like this at this level of football, every point earned feels like a battle. We just said to the lads that we’ve got to celebrate every single win because it’s so hard earned.

“It’s not like 10 years ago when we started managing this level of football. You’d play bottom of the league and you’d have a whipping boy, maybe even two or three.

“The quality at this level of football now – I don’t want to come across condescending but sides with very good managers are probably at the wrong end of the table. Then they’ve got top players in the side who can ask you lots of questions.

“Second half, we didn’t play anywhere near as well but yet we got our goals and won the game. That’s the nature of football, the old cliche of good sides do that when they’re not at their best.

“Leamington showed bits of quality in moments and will maybe feel aggrieved that they haven’t got something out of the game, but it was a well-earned three points backing up the result on Tuesday night.

Leamington boss Paul Holleran: “It was quite an open game. 0-0 at half time, we’ve had chances, they’ve had chances, and probably the way the system has been set up in the last two games, we took stock and thought, can we get more final third entries? Can we get more crosses into the box? Can we create more chances?

“We’ve done that, but sadly today is another example like the last two or three games… I think the disappointing thing is we’ve started the second half really well, but we have a corner and 11 seconds later it’s in our net. We’ve had two or three opportunities to deal with it, but it’s been mistake after mistake after mistake.

“Our response is fantastic, because not only have we got a great goal, we’ve actually pinned them back and at that moment in time there’s only one team going to win the game you think , and then we end up giving away a sloppy goal away from a corner where the guy’s headed it in free at the back post, nearly on the line.

“They (Radcliffe) managed it well after that, but in our position there’s only so many knockdowns you can take, and I think again, similar to last week, it’s avoidable.

“It was a great save from their keeper at the end to be fair, and a great save from the penalty. It’s another game where we’ve come to a massive club, a team full of Football League and National League experience.

“Like last week we’ve gone toe to toe with them, it could have gone either way, and in the end we’ve come out on the wrong side of it, but again, it’s goals that are avoidable, and sadly we haven’t got the nouse, the personnel, the experience that we’ve had in years gone by, and in key moments it’s showing, which is something else to expect when you’ve got so many kids under 23 in the team.

“There’s a lack of experience, so yeah, it was disappointing. We’ve lost Walks and Frankie Tattum to injury – the pitch was heavy, but we’ll reflect on that over the next 48 hours. It’s just the way our season has gone, really.”

Here’s how fans reacted as Radcliffe’s Rio Clegg goes viral with an ‘absolutely outrageous Puskas Award contender’…

@cm0102legends: David Collins regen

@JoeShieldsMag1: @FIFAcom Here is a contender for the Puskas Award.

@benholmes94: Pack it in Rio 🤣

@seadogsontour: That’s absolutely outrageous 😮‍💨

@chelz_macvicar: That’s absolutely ridiculous, if that had your fancy sky sport cameras from a few tiers up would be up there with the best ever seen 👏👏👏

@tomrobson11: The drag back 😫👏🏾

@Camiller26: That scoop is Audacious

@eajacobs1989: The little drag back to manufacture a bit more space for the scoop is just gorgeous.

@JonoBele: It looked great from behind the goal. Rio always give you the feeling something is on, even when the odds are stacked against him

@baggie_ade: We just don’t see enough goals like this anymore. Absolute joy to watch. Ex Prestwich Heys striker Rio Clegg scored incredible goal for Radcliffe v Leamington. In the higher leagues they’d coach this out of a player which is a real shame.

@mcfcman66: Decent goal that. Rio used to do that every season for Unsworth against us in the North Bury Junior League 🤣🤣

@pattfurey: Absolute filth btw .. our non league is genuinely better than half of Europe

@kebraprimus98: That is just disgusting 😂

@Carlfranklin83: Like the lad is in the school playground 🔵🟡

@RowanZayne: Some goal this, Isak does this and people say he’s worth the money again🔥

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