A Football team have tracked down the stray dog that ran on to their pitch and helped them to victory.
A baffled Vale coach was left questioning “what are the rules for this” after the animal intervened to save a goal and help them to win a cup last week.
Pooch Rory ran free onto the field of play blocking a shot from Ferguslie Star striker Ross Hamilton as the teams squared up at Argyll Park.
Paul Scott, in charge of Vale of Leven amateurs while manager Chris Anderson was away, was baffled by the turn of events which saw the Alexandria side secure victory thanks to a couple of late goals and the mutt’s heroic save.
The 44-year-old said: “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life before and I’m nearly 45 and have done football all my life.
“When it first happened, everyone was kind of standing there thinking ‘what are the rules for this’?
“They should’ve been 3-1 and they probably would have won the game. But we went on and won the game 3-2 in injury time.”
The club managed to track down Rory the dog who joined them for a team photo at the weekend which they plan to put in a notable spot.
Paul added: “We’re sponsored by the Dog House pub in Balloch so we’d like to get it put up in there.”
He added: “Ironically, we are looking for a goalkeeper – we desperately need one.
“The manager Chris Anderson was actually away in Lewis working so myself and another coach Wullie Jamieson were taking the team.
“I had actually messaged Chris telling him we were getting beat 1-0. Then it was 2-1 to them. Then the next time I had to text him and say ‘mate you’re not going to believe this’.
“It should’ve been 3-1 but a dog ran on the park and stopped them from scoring’.
“He was like ‘what?!’ He just can’t believe he missed it.
“In the second half, after the dog incident, we scored with one minute 30 seconds to go and then we got a winner right at the death. What a finish to a game.”
The clip was uploaded to Twitter on Thursday morning and has since racked up more than 40,000 views.
Meanwhile fed-up Ferguslie Star striker Ross Hamilton – himself a dog owner – joked he may have to “hang up his boots” after the incident.
The IT worker looked certain to score for the Paisley side after homing in on goal with just the keeper to beat.
But the 26-year-old was left gobsmacked when the cheeky off-lead Golden Retriever jumped inside the posts and deflected the ball before it could cross the line.
Despite a team-mate battering it in just seconds later, the goal was disallowed by the referee – bringing about a change of luck for the away side, who had been 2-1 up.
Despite a slightly bruised ego, Ross told how he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the ball bounce off the dog’s backside.
He joked: “It was just unbelievable. You know you’ve not made it in football when you shoot and a dog blocks your shot. You’re at the bottom level at that point.
“I had actually seen the dog beforehand and I was like ‘oh surely it’s behind the goals or something’.
“I was running through, as you do, concentrating on keeping the ball on target and hoping to finish it and the dog was sort of at the corner of the goal.
“Just as I went to hit it, the dog jumped to the inside of the post.
“I don’t know if it was chasing it’s own ball or something but I had already committed so I just had to hit it and hope it missed the dog. But nope – it caught it right in the backside.
“As soon as it happened, you can understand that there was a bit of outrage, so the guy quickly left with the dog straight after it.
“The referee then took the decision that it was to be a drop ball and cancelled the goal.
“There wasn’t much that could be done – it was a bit of a freak accident.”
Ross, who lives in Paisley with six-year-old Boxer dog Miley, has been blown away by the reaction on social media which left his phone ringing off the hook.
He added: “Because I’ve got a boxer myself, I follow a couple of dog pages on Facebook and saw that it was International Dog Day. You couldn’t make this up.” unbelievably ironic.”
