A fed-up amateur footballer joked he may have to “hang up his boots” after his goal was blocked by a runaway dog.
Ross Hamilton looked certain to score for Ferguslie Star against Vale of Leven AFC in a tense cup tie after homing in on goal with just the keeper to beat.
But the 26-year-old was left gobsmacked when a cheeky off-lead Golden Retriever - dubbed Alan Ruff - 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 Paisley team, who had been 2-1 up.
The home side went on to equalise in the second half after the pooch’s ‘game changer’ move before scoring the winning goal in the dying seconds of the match.
Vale of Leven AFC are now on the hunt for the owner of the mystery dog as they want to invite it along for a team photograph at the weekend.
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.
The IT worker 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.
“If there was ever a sign to hang up your boots, then I would say this was it.”
The striker continued: “I had actually seen the dog beforehand and I was like ‘oh surely it’s behind the goals or something’.
“We were 2-1 up and the ball came over the top from my teammate William.
“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.
“Obviously this has all played out on Twitter and my bio on it says ‘dugs not drugs’ so everyone is saying to me that I need to change that now.”
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: “It’s been a crazy morning. As soon as I woke up, it was all go and I’ve had to mute the notifications on my phone.
“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. It’s just unbelievably ironic.”
Opponents Vale of Leven AFC, who are genuinely on the lookout for a new goalkeeper, have unofficially named the dog as ‘man of the match’ after its antics.
Coach Paul Scott told how he had never witnessed anything quite like it and is keen for the animal’s owner to get in touch.
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. We’re still trying to find out who the dog is though.
“What we were looking to do is get it to come for a photograph with us on Saturday because we’re due to get a team picture done.
“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 boy was just filling in for us last night.
“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 uploaded to Twitter on Thursday morning and has since racked up more than 40,000 views.
Online wags named the pooch “Alan Ruff” after Scotland’s legendary number one of the 70s and 80s Alan Rough.
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