Aston Villa squad had savage Peter Enckelman nickname after Birmingham blunder
Former Aston Villa striker Peter Crouch has revealed he and his team-mates gave Peter Enckelman a brutal nickname after his horrendous blunder against Birmingham.
Enckelman infamously missed a throw-in which ended up in his own net in the September 2002 Second City derby. There was much debate about whether the goal should have stood as you cannot score from a throw-in and it appeared to not touch the goalkeeper, but it was given as an own-goal.
It has gone down as one of the most memorable blunders in Premier League history. And not only did it earn Enckelman notoriety, but it also landed him with a new name according to Crouch.
Speaking to Paddy Power ahead of the Merseyside derby this weekend, he said: "We had two bad ones one year. I played in one game where [Dion] Dublin headbutted [Robbie] Savage, and that was a bad one.
"We lost both derbies that year and the reverse game was with the Peter Enckelman mistake when he let the ball in from a throw in. And Birmingham had only just been promoted, so that was a disaster. But they were always tight games and I don’t remember getting blown away in any derby like that.
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"It was absolutely horrendous. I remember Olaf [Melberg] throwing the ball back and he just lifted his foot up and it went underneath. Those derbies, I think because they hadn’t had them for so long, because Birmingham were in the league below for a while, they were one of the most aggressive games, from the fans, the atmosphere, it just felt like it was ready to blow at any moment.
"The way we helped him through it though was that we gave him a nickname. His new name ended up being Polo-foot because he had a hole in his."
Enckelman never quite recovered from his error, with his career petering out with spells at Balckburn, Cardiff, St Johnstone and Hearts before he returned to his homeland.
Peter Crouch was speaking exclusively as an ambassador of Paddy Power
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