Former Newcastle winger Damien Duff has admitted that the worst moment of his footballing career came when he scored the own goal which relegated the Magpies from the Premier League in 2009.
Newcastle only needed a draw in the last match of the season, when Alan Shearer was appointed to help the Magpies retain their top flight status, but Duff accidentally deflected Gareth Barry’s shot into his own goal, with the match ending 1-0.
A fan question asked by FourFourTwo about whether he would describe it as his worst moment in football, the former Irish international responded:
“When you say it like that, yes. Over the 38 games that season, we deserved to go down. I probably took a lot of flak for scoring the own goal on the last day at Aston Villa. I’ve refused to ever watch it back. We only needed a draw to stay up and then to see the scoreboard say, ‘Duff OG’, I thought, ‘What the ****? What are the chances of that happening?’ That probably summed up my three years up there. I gave them everything but sometimes moves don’t work out.”
Duff spent three seasons at St James’ Park between 2006 and 2009, making 86 appearances. His six goals and seven assists during that time was a very poor return for the £5million the Magpies paid Chelsea, and he would go on to recapture some of his earlier career form when he moved to Fulham. He spent five years in London before moving to Australia after the club’s relegation to the Championship.
