Andy Hinchcliffe (1990-98)
Apps 182, Goals 7
Tasty left foot
Hinchcliffe was our left-footed dead-ball specialist during the nineties. Perhaps not as accomplished the right-footed dead-ball specialist that is still clinging onto the England squad for dear life – but actually more well-rounded. Because of Mr Beckham’s Murdochian stranglehold on football it is easy to think that good cross and set-piece merchants are immobile automatons obsessed with angles and lining up their Coke cans in an orderly fashion in their fridge. This would be wrong. Whereas Beckham has all the mobility of Dr Strangelove stuck in a mud drenched lay-by, Hinchcliffe was actually quite quick, and occasionally took on players too.
David Beckham made his first international appearance in September 1996 against Moldova – Hinchcliffe was in the same side – and although nowhere near as accomplished as Beckham, our left-back was criminally underrated at international level.
When George W. Bush was basking in the light of reelection he gave special thanks to Karl Rove, calling him “the architect”. Duncan Ferguson’s place on this list, and some of his most memorable goals are due in large part to Andy Hinchcliffe – the architect of many a towering headed goal with his whipped, inswinging corners. Hinchcliffe is even memorialised in music with Finnish composer Osmo Tapio Räihälä writing “Hinchcliffe Thumper” in 1993.
#60 Thomas Gravesen
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