Joe Corrigan MBE

One of my heroes
Big Joe hard has nails .
He wasn't to good at the start of his career, bit of a calamity .
Changed it all around with hard dedication & losing some weight .
Took his opportunity when Mcrae got injured & never looked back .
Well done Big Joe Corrigan !
 
Lovely to see 'Big Joe' being recognised for his contributions to City and the wider football 'family', as well as to his hometown and the community at large.

My favourite Joe Corrigan moment will be 50 years old in early December. Lots of Blues on here are (rightly) recalling his wonder save against Leeds at Elland Road but I still maintain his save against QPR during the cracking 0-0 game in 1975 was his greatest ever!

QPR under Dave Sexton was a good side, running Liverpool close to the title that 75-76 season. Some really good players (including our very own Stanley Bowles!) and an attacking mindset throughout the team.

Dave Thomas took a corner for QPR at the Platt Lane end and David Webb charged at the ball and met it squarely just by the penalty spot (think of Dave Watson and Mick McCarthy doing similar against Ipswich and The Red Filth at Maine Road to score from corners!)

The ball was heading like a bullet to 'the top bins' (as they say nowadays!) and for a split-second it seemed all over a goal. But Joe, who had advanced off his line, managed to immediately reposition himself and launch himself backwards to reach behind himself, get his palm to the ball and parry it over the crossbar. He landed in a heap to hear the crowd going crazy, his teammates all congratulating him and even David Webb shaking his hand (while shaking his head, of course, wondering how he'd not scored!)

Unlike that great save at Leeds, there were no tv cameras at the game that day to record it for posterity. But, to me at least, it's his greatest individual moment and deserves to be up there with Gordon Banks' save from Pele when England played Brazil at the World Cup in 1970..!

Once again, congratulations R Joe..!
 
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Blue Til Death said:
Well done Big Joe, what a gentleman and by fuck what a keeper …
England’s number one….
I remember when he altered direction, in mid air to deny Alan Clarke at Leeds scoring from 2 yards out .. Incredible save…
Guess what, Stepney got save of the season that year for a routine tip over the bar, fuck all changes eh … :-)
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Wow, that's almost exactly what I was going to write. I've commented before that that save is the exact reason I support City and I remember as a 9 year old how pissed off I was that Stepney got save of the season.

So here it is:


And if you're wondering about my username and my memory isn't playing tricks, Joe's superstitions were that he always put his left boot and left glove on first and I think he also had a shamrock under the roll of his sock. I still do the boot and glove thing myself to this day.

Congratulations Big Joe!
 
Blue Til Death said:
Well done Big Joe, what a gentleman and by fuck what a keeper …
England’s number one….
I remember when he altered direction, in mid air to deny Alan Clarke at Leeds scoring from 2 yards out .. Incredible save…
Guess what, Stepney got save of the season that year for a routine tip over the bar, fuck all changes eh … :-)
Click to expand...
Did he catch it, though? Trautmann would have caught it with his left hand!
 
City Hobgoblin said:
I'm fairly sure Banks v Pele 1970 got the greatest save award on the Blue Peter thing
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Yes, I think you're correct. I think Stepney got 2nd and Corrigan 3rd. I think this was due to recency bias. Although Corrigan's save was far better than Stepney's effort. I remember how many sports journalists were amazed by what he had done, stating how physically unbelievable it was to achieve.
 
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