[imagesource: Getty Images]

Football is back and it is glorious.

Provided you’re not a Manchester United fan, that is. At least if you were watching the Springboks against the All Blacks, you would have missed the first 35 minutes or so of Saturday’s match against Brentford, by which point Erik ten Hag’s men were already four goals down.

Small mercies.

QPR goalkeeper Seny Dieng’s effort this weekend doesn’t quite rival Liverpool number one Alisson’s goal for drama. As a Newcastle United supporter, the fact that it came against Sunderland makes it even sweeter, though.

Fans at the Stadium of Plight Light had seen the home side take a comfortable 2-0 lead and it looked like the three points were in the bag.

Ilias Chair’s brilliant 25-minute free-kick pulled one back for QPR in the 87th minute. Then, with the final seconds ticking away, the Senegalese keeper came up for a corner and tucked away his header:

Scores at one end and makes a super save at the other!

Take a bow, Seny Dieng! 👏#EFL | @QPR pic.twitter.com/pc1BwiIjv8

— Sky Bet Championship (@SkyBetChamp) August 14, 2022

There was still enough time for Sunderland to launch a final attack in search of a win. Dieng came up tops once more, pulling off a fine stop before Elliot Embleton blasted one against the bar.

You can see that from the 1:45 mark:

Perhaps my favourite part of the drama is the fact that Dieng didn’t ask permission from his manager to make his way up for the corner.

Below via The Athletic:

“I had to go up,” Dieng said with emphasis. “We got a corner and I thought: ‘If not now, then when?’

“I went up hoping to affect it somehow. It was a nice cross and I got my head on it with a nice connection. It was a good moment.”

The Stadium of Light gulped in disbelief. Dieng’s manager Michael Beale had already puffed his cheeks out. As Beale explained of suddenly seeing his keeper in the opposition area: “One of my assistants said: ‘Are you happy Seny has gone up for the corner?’ He was 80 yards up the pitch, so it was too late to say: ‘No’.”

As the saying goes, this time around it was better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Oops – how did these highlights sneak in here?

[source:athletic]