It was pandemonium in Goodison Park, and utter confusion elsewhere.
Perhaps the best moment of Dan Gosling’s career came in its infancy as his late stoppage-time goal secured Everton a hard fought FA Cup fourth round replay win over Merseyside rivals Liverpool in February 2009.
Half the country didn’t see Gosling’s magic momentGetty
The then 19-year-old expertly side-stepped Reds defenders Jamie Carragher and Alvaro Arbeloa before expertly guiding the ball past Reds goalkeeper Pepe Reina in-off the post.
Goodison Park erupted as Gosling’s Toffees teammates, which included Mikel Arteta, piled on top of Everton’s newest hero.
What a moment it was for the Devon-born talent, who made the brave move to Premier League Everton from Plymouth Argyle just a year earlier.
“Obviously scoring the goal was like a blur in the moment,” Gosling told talkSPORT.com. “It was just so quick and everything happened really fast. And then the celebration and then the pile on and all that sort of stuff. And obviously the interviews after.
“I mean, I was so young, so I remember the interview with Joleon Lescott actually. And I said something quite embarrassing, to be honest. He was laughing, but that was one of my first real interviews.”
However, a bizarre twist of fate meant Gosling’s magic moment was missed by several fans watching from home, including his mum.
ITV’s coverage of the game was interrupted when a scheduled automated ad break kicked in – with the game going to extra time seemingly unaccounted for.
By the time the situation was rectified, the affected viewers were greeted with a shot of a pile of Everton players and a raucous home fan base celebrating the only goal of the game.
ITV said the problem occurred at the transmission centre and was not the responsibility of the ITV Sport production team.
The broadcaster’s executive chairman, Michael Grade, said: “Most importantly I’d like to apologise to all our viewers who were affected by last night’s unprecedented technical error.
Gosling got his shot away among a crowd of Liverpool playersGetty
And Goodison Park erupted when the ball sailed past ReinaGetty
This is what viewers in some regions saw next after the unexpected glitchAFP
“As a football fan myself I was glued to the match and was as disappointed as anyone to miss the goal.
“We have years of experience in dealing with the changes in ad break patterns when games go into extra time and sometimes penalties – this we have done faultlessly through the Champions League, World Cup and European Championships.
“Last night’s glitch was inexcusable and we are awaiting the results of our technical inquiry so we can put in place stringent and immediate procedures to address this.”
Not everyone watching was affected by the outage, however, one of the most important people in Gosling’s life in his mum had the match on her TV at home in Devon – and missed his big moment.
“I first heard of the ad break probably half an hour, 40 minutes after really. Yeah, I think one of the first ones was my mum. I mean, my phone was blowing up ridiculously,” Gosling said.
“And then I spoke to her and she explained it went off. Then obviously it started filtering through from various people.
“It was a shame actually. One of the best moments of my career, and only half the country saw it.
This is a memory that can never be taken away from Gosling, even if it was taken away from up to millions of othersGetty
“I don’t think it cut off everywhere… but definitely down south where my mum was in Devon.”
Unfortunately for Gosling, none of his nearest and dearest were in attendance at Goodison Park for his big night.
“I mean, I wasn’t starting the game. So maybe that was a reason,” Gosling added.
“And it was a long way from Devon anyway.”
Gosling’s goal saw Everton book their place in the fifth round in what proved to be a magic Cup run with David Moyes’ side making it to the final.
However, they came unstuck against Chelsea at Wembley, losing 2-1 to the west Londoners.
