6) Gareth Barry for Aston Villa vs Nottingham Forest, ‘98-99 Season
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In his first professional season for Aston Villa, Gareth Barry secured the distinction of sending Nottingham Forest into Division 2 by scoring the killer goal in a 2-0 win for the Villans. To top it off, it was also Barry’s very first goal in senior professional football which did the job.
Nottingham Forest were already having a troubled time in their newest spell back into the Premier League, after being relegated in 1994 for the first time in 16 seasons. In their second comeback to the Premier League, they had a barren run of results during which they failed to win a single Premier League game in 19 tries, after kicking off the season relatively fast.
By the time this game was played, Forest were hanging on for dear life to survive in the Premier League, and they needed to win this game dearly. However, they missed a sitter in the first half, before Mark Draper scored a header from an indirect free kick. While they showed some signs of a comeback in the second period, Barry’s goal finished them off for good, and they never looked likely to score after that.
Nottingham Forest never returned to the Premier League after that and have since then endured a spell of being under administration for bankruptcy.
