Gers go viral!
On Saturday, 487 people witnessed Cowdenbeath’s Jordan Garden concede a late penalty after fouling Michael Mckenna with a ‘diving headbutt’ as our live twitter feed described it. McKenna picked himself up and took the penalty, sending Cowdenbeath goalkeeper David McGurn the wrong way and earning an important three points for the ‘Gers. After the game the penalty incident was the topic of discussion amongst supporters.
Less than 48 hours later and the incident is now a hot topic globally as our footage of the incident has gone viral across social media. A clip from our match highlights on BRFCTV was posted on twitter by Craig Telfer, a writer for Tell Him He’s Pele, and began to be shared by social media users. From there the footage has gone worldwide, with news outlets such as BBC Sport, Bleacher Report, ESPN and Sky Sports sharing the footage to in excess of 50 million social media users. The penalty has been seen around the world in countries including Spain, Italy, Norway, Mexico and even The United Arab Emirates. It has also found its way on to television, appearing on Sky Sports News’ ‘Ref Watch’ feature this morning.
The official Website caught up with Michael McKenna to get his take on the incident “Obviously it was a bit of a shock to see the defender coming in head first like that. You’ve got to give him credit for putting his neck on the line for his team though”.
Despite the bizarre nature of the challenge, it still came as a surprise that the footage had gone viral: “I couldn’t believe it. I seen someone shared it and it had a couple of thousand retweets and now it’s been picked up by the BBC, Match of the Day, Bleacher Report. It’s crazy!”
McKenna has been in fine form this season with five goals and two assists already this campaign, matching his goal tally for 2016/17 and surpassing the three goals scored the season before that. “It’s been a bit of an up down season so far but I’m happy with the goals. I think once you get a couple of goals it comes more natural, you find yourself in goal scoring positions a bit more. It’s just confidence, it kind of kick-starts you. I’ve played up front a couple of times as well so finding myself further up the park is better”
Anyone who has yet to see the incident can view it over on our official YouTube channel, BRFCTV.
