Harrison Biggins has put down a yardstick few goals can match. His strike for Newport County was measured at exactly 77.7 yards, and it came in the 2-1 defeat at Salford City. That distance puts it beyond the long-range efforts most fans reach for first, including Wayne Rooney’s 61-yard Everton goal and David Beckham’s 59-yard Manchester United effort.

The long-range comparison

Biggins’ effort belongs in a small and slightly absurd class of goals, where the first question is usually not whether it counts, but how far out it really was. The BBC’s comparison is clear enough: Rooney’s Everton strike was 61 yards, Beckham’s United effort 59. Biggins’ finish was 77.7 yards, which is a sizeable gap even by the standards of long-range goals.

Two older benchmarks sit beyond those famous Premier League moments. Tom King’s Newport goal at Cheltenham in 2021 was measured at 105 yards and is described as the Guinness World Record for a competitive match goal. Moritz Stoppelkamp’s 2014 volley for SC Paderborn came from 83 metres, or 91 yards, and set a Bundesliga distance record.

Biggins does not top either of those, but that does not make the strike ordinary. Newport were already a rough place to be, with five straight defeats, and Salford had won three of their last five, so the goal arrived in a losing cause against a side in better form.

Mullins expected him to try it

Hayden Mullins was not shocked by the attempt. Speaking to the BBC, the Newport manager said: "The goalkeeper was pretty high out the box and if there's one person who's going to try that, it is him," and added: "I didn't expect him to score, but it is a fantastic goal."

That fits the way Newport have spoken about Biggins’ instinct for the shot. The keeper was high, the window was open, and he took it. The finish may have caught Mullins off guard, but the decision to try from there clearly did not.

The only place this really leaves is the record books around the club and beyond. Newport already have Tom King’s 105-yard effort on their history sheet, and Biggins has now added a different kind of long-distance strike to the list. The next time Newport see space in front of an out-of-position goalkeeper, Biggins will not be discouraged from having a go.

Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →