Martin Smith column: goals, gold and good sense as Liam heads for 1,000 mark

He might be 40 years old, have the slightest hint of a middle-age belly creeping over the waist of his shorts and probably unheard of outside this area.

But he’s got the knack.

Liam’s a goalscorer, a proper goalscorer.

The kind of player that wins games with a tap-in in the 91st minute - and then gets another one before the end just to rub it in.

And he’s been rubbing it in on a regular basis for a long time now.

500 goals on Sundays and 436 in Saturday football from clubs from Dinnington Town to South Normanton FC.

It’s hard to score goals at any level of football - most of us have tried at some stage in our lives - to be approaching 1,000 in a career is nothing short of astonishing.

Playing two games in a weekend at the age of 40 and to still be knocking goals like he was 25 is almost unheard of.

Top man!

n There are a lot of short-term superstars in sport. Three-week wonders we build up while they flourish and then forget while the sweat is still wet on their losers’ kit.

Jessica Ennis isn’t one of those.

She will be made a Dame by the Queen soon but she’s already more than that.

She had the weight of the country and the sporting world on her shoulders at the 2012 London Olympics, her face on buildings and billboards all over the UK.

And she excelled beyond all our national dreams.

She’ll get the gongs and rightly so.

But more importantly she will be remembered by Sheffield and the world because she found the courage and composure to display her best ability when the whole world was watching.

n The fall-out from the not guilty verdict at Ched Evans retrial continues to grow.

The Chesterfield and former Sheffield United striker was given a five-year jail sentence for rape in 2012 but that verdict was overthrown.

A lot have had a lot to say, much of it poisonous, some of it illegal and all of it adding to the bonfire of online argument surrounding issues of sexual consent, ‘arrogant footballers’ and the finer points of criminal law.

It would be wise for some keyboard warriors to engage brain before opening mouth.