A striker by chance

Dean Windass: 200-up

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FOR a player who did not start out as a striker, Dean Windass’ feat of scoring 200 league goals is some achievement.

The 39-year-old kicked off his career in midfield and it was only by accident that he became a sharp-shooter of distinction.

Windass explained: “I was pushed up front for one match by the then Hull City manager Terry Dolan because we didn’t have any strikers available.

“We beat Plymouth 2-0 and I scored both goals against former England ’keeper Peter Shilton.

“That is how it started and I went on to score 24 goals that season.”

Windass’ boyhood heroes were midfielders Glenn Hoddle and Paul Gascoigne and he admits his career could easily have moved in a different direction but for the intervention of fate.

Windass says he has no secret recipe for finding the net, having scored 230 career goals in all competitions for Hull (three spells) and Bradford (two spells), Aberdeen, Oxford, Middlesbrough and both Sheffield sides.

He said: “I have not figured out why I have scored so many goals other than it is down to instinct.

“You are either born to be a goalscorer or not and I’m lucky to find it comes naturally.”

Windass was delighted to finally score his 200th league goal — he finally achieved the milestone in Athletic’s win over Northampton — and celebrated by unveiling a white T-shirt with 200 emblazoned on it.

He had been wearing it for his first six games in Athletic colours.

It was his first goal for the club, but his actions earned him a mandatory yellow card from referee Andy Haines for removing his top.

Windass said his goal-scoring drought had started to prey on his mind.

He continued: “In my career I don’t think I have ever previously gone more than five games without a goal.

“The lads were giving me a bit of banter about it as I had been wearing the T-shirt in every game.

“But I always maintained that if I was contributing to the team I would be happy, even if I was not scoring.

“I had set up a few goals and hit the woodwork three times, so I knew it would only be a matter of time before I scored again.”

Windass, who names Alan Shearer, Mark Hughes and Thierry Henry as the strikers he admires most, has enjoyed operating alongside Lee Hughes, although the former West Brom and Coventry City forward is different from his usual partners in attack.

He said: “I have worked with a lot of strikers, but the other person has usually been quick, but Lee isn’t that type as he plays in-between people.”

Windass describes his match-winning goal in last season’s Championship play-off final as the most prized of his career.

He scored the only goal of the game against Bristol City to earn Hull a place in the top division for the first time.

Another stand-out goal also came for the Tigers at Wycombe when he flicked the ball up in the air before volleying it home.

But the effort in the play-off final at Wembley was a moment to cherish for Windass.

A Hull lad, he was rejected by his home-town club after completing a two-year apprenticeship.

He rekindled his career at North Ferriby and his exploits for the non-league outfit earned him a second bite of the cherry at Hull.

The rest, as they say, is history.