Danny Lennon recalls goal for Raith Rovers v Bayern Munich 30 years ago: I said to myself ‘right, come on, make something happen’

Of course he is – and so would you be if you’d scored against Bayern Munich – or, for that matter, the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan or even Celtic or Rangers – and quite rightly.

No prizes for guessing that he is former Raith Rovers midfielder Danny Lennon, the game no doubt having already been given away by the headline above and accompanying photograph, and even fewer for deducing that the goal in question is the one he scored away to German giants Bayern in round two of that season’s Uefa Cup in front of a crowd of 27,000 at Munich’s Olympiastadion 30 years ago next Friday, on the night of Halloween 1995.

The 56-year-old scored 23 goals in 200 appearances for the Kirkcaldy club between 1993 and 1999, leading to him being likened by fans to Juventus star Alessandro Del Piero at the time and earning him induction into Stark’s Park’s hall of fame in 2023, but that 43rd-minute free-kick past 86-times-capped Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, helped by a deflection from Austrian midfielder Andreas Herzog, is undoubtedly the one he’s best remembered for.

It gave manager Jimmy Nichol’s Fifers a shock lead against the team that would go on to win the competition six months later but was cancelled out by a Jurgen Klinsmann equaliser five minutes after half-time, with a further goal from Markus Babbell on 64 minutes securing a 2-1 second-leg victory for the hosts on the night and 4-1 on aggregate, following a 2-0 win at Edinburgh’s Easter Road Stadium two weeks prior, with 108-times-capped Germany striker Klinsmann, now 61, netting twice that time round, on six minutes and 73.

It proved to be the tenth and last goal of Raith’s only European campaign ever, preceded by three in round one’s first leg at Stark’s Park in mid-September, two of them by Lennon and one by Barry Wilson; two, one by Lennon and one by Stevie Crawford, during a 2-2 preliminary-round second-leg draw away to Gotu Itrottarfelag in the Faroe Islands and four without reply – by Jason Dair, Tony Rougier, Steve McAnespie and Colin Cameron – during the first leg in Scotland, both the month before.

Netting the other way were Arnar Gunnlaugsson during a 1-0 home win for Iþrottabandalag Akraness at the end of that September and Olafur Þorðarson for the Icelandic club in Scotland two weeks earlier as they lost 3-1 and Henning and Magni Jarnskor in Gotu.

Lennon – sacked as manager of Raith’s William Hill Championship rivals Airdieonians yesterday after just over two months in charge, overseeing six defeats and two draws – was one of eight players to score four goals that campaign, a total bettered only by Klinsmann with 15, Brazil and PSV Eindhoven’s Ronaldo with six and Bayern’s Mehmet Scholl, Sparta Prague’s Pavel Nedved and PSV’s Luc Nilis with five.

Looking back at his finest moment in a Raith jersey at a launch event in Kirkcaldy last Thursday for We Led in Munich: The Unlikely Adventures of Raith Rovers in Europe, a new book about that campaign by fan Steven Lawther, Lennon said: “I was actually going through a wee purple patch at the time. I was actually, you know, quite successful in that season.

“The fans called me Dan Piero. Anytime we got a free-kick within shooting distance, they would shout ‘Dan Piero, Dan Piero.

“There was no doubt in my mind that I was taking it. I’d actually won the free-kick, so it was a bit like I was back in the playground – I won it, I’m taking it.

“Obviously, scoring the goal and getting credited with it, I get asked for a lot of interviews and asked was that your best moment in football et cetera?

“Anytime it’s in the paper, the first text I get every morning is from my brother-in-law and he says ‘are you still going on about that?’ and it’s a standing joke now.”

One such interview appears in Lawther’s book, printed by West Sussex-based Pitch Publishing and priced at £18.99, with Lennon telling the author: “I just remember thinking that we had an opportunity here. I said to myself ‘right, come on, make something happen’.”

Lawther, 55, formerly of Glenrothes but now living in Edinburgh, writes: “Lennon struck the free-kick. The ball successfully bypassed the Bayern Munich wall and, travelling at pace, deflected off the head of Andreas Herzog.

“The initial shot looked to be heading directly towards the German goalkeeper but contact with the Austrian defender changed its trajectory, sending it hurtling towards the opposite side of the goal.

“Oliver Kahn watched motionless as the ball hit the back of the net. Incredibly, Raith Rovers had taken the lead.

“At the far end of the ground, there was a momentary delay as the away supporters tried to make sense of what they had witnessed. When they finally did, it was bedlam.

“Graham Hunter of the Daily Mail would later describe it as a ‘heart-stopping moment of sheer joy’. It was that and more.

“Julian Broddle’s first thought as the goal went in was of the fans who had come to support the team.

“The English defender had been frustrated that they had not been able to give 1,200 supporters a goal to celebrate in the first leg at Easter Road. This felt like payback. ‘When Danny scored, I thought ‘we have given the fans what they wanted’,’ recounts Broddle. ‘They had travelled everywhere to watch us and had been brilliant. They had been in the Faroe Islands and Iceland – remote, freezing cold places – and now they are in the Olympic Stadium celebrating a goal. That was the moment. This was the dream.’”

Raith and Munich went their separate ways after that evening 30 years ago, the Fifers exiting an unprecedented campaign unrepeated since, taking with them memories not looking likely to be forgotten any time soon, and their hosts going all the way to a 5-1 victory over Bordeaux in the following May’s two-legged final, knocking out Barcelona, Nottingham Forest and Benfica en route.

Lennon, at Hibernian from 1987 to 1993 before joining Raith, left Kirkcaldy four years after scoring in Bavaria, moving on to Ayr United, Ross County, Partick Thistle, Gretna, Workington and Cowdenbeath, later managing Cowdenbeath, St Mirren, Alloa Athletic, Airdrie and Clyde.