How former Cliftonville goalkeeper Richard Brush played a role in Harry Kane's history-making moment

​They were already 3-0 down heading into the dying minutes of their final Europa League group stage game at home to the Premier League giants when an 18-year-old substitute struck to make it four.

What’s the big deal? Spurs were expected to win heavily.

Well, little did former Ballinamallard United and Cliftonville stopper Brush know that moment would be brought back into the spotlight over 11 years later and that he’d just played his part in a bit of history.

The fresh-faced, teenage sub was called Harry Kane (you may have heard of him) and that night in south Dublin started a journey that peaked when the-now England captain became Tottenham’s all-time top scorer by netting in their Premier League victory over Manchester City.

As he wheeled away in celebration, taking the applause of thousands after breaking Jimmy Greaves’ record, it could all be traced back to a goal against Brush – not that he really cares.

"At the risk of sounding ignorant, I don't remember it!” he tells the News Letter.

It makes for a great story in the changing room and in a “weird, warped way” there’s something quite interesting about being linked to one of the world’s best and the source of pub quizzers’ bewilderment when asked ‘Who did Harry Kane score his first goal against?’.

"I have told the story and wind the lads up,” he adds. “At every club I've been at over the last five or six years it has been a tagline of mine which is a bit of fun.

"Looking back on it, it sounds daft but it's a bit of a proud moment in a weird, warped way!

"Now that he has broke the record for Spurs it's nice to be linked into a player because that's my only chance of being linked to a high-level player at the minute!"

Brush, who is enjoying a fourth spell at Sligo Rovers, confesses he “wouldn't follow football” and doesn’t have much interest outside of playing or his slow transition into coaching (“I could probably count on one hand how many times I've watched a top-level game in the past 10 years”) so it isn’t surprising to hear he didn’t keep tabs on Kane’s progress in the years following or that he hasn’t even watched the goal back.

"Someone has told me that it was a relatively easy finish for him,” he adds. “I knew it wasn't a worldie unfortunately!

"If he had bent one into the top corner and I looked great going after it, maybe I would have looked back over it.

"It's an unmemorable goal for what is now a memorable moment for fans.”

That defeat to Spurs also marked Michael O’Neill’s last match in charge of Shamrock Rovers, departing for Northern Ireland after helping the Hoops win two consecutive League of Ireland titles.

Brush credits O’Neill for “pulling me out of the abyss” after he started the Englishman in the first game against Spurs at White Hart Lane, which astonishingly, Shamrock took the lead in through former Glentoran midfielder Stephen Rice.

"I was injured at the start of 2011 and had just left Sligo Rovers at the end of 2010 and had an operation on my wrist, so it was all a bit murky,” recalls Brush. "He pulled me out of that abyss under the guidance of his goalkeeper coach.

"I'd been out for about four months but he had faith in me to play and I was only back a few months before I got thrown into the first leg at White Hart Lane which was amazing.

"He was great for me.

"Even back then the work he put into games...analysis wasn't a huge thing in our league at the time but he had bits and pieces for us going into games, so in regards to the game over here he was probably a little bit ahead of his time."

Brush started his career with Coventry City before moving across the Irish Sea in 2006 via Shrewsbury Town – where he was back-up to a young Joe Hart – and spells at a few other non-league outfits.

The veteran stopper has plied his trade in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since, picking up seven trophies.

After taking a step back from full-time football, Brush spent 18 months with Ballinamallard before moving onto Solitude following The Ducks’ relegation to the Championship.

A further two years in the Premiership ended in February 2021 when switching back to Sligo, but he’s still very much in contact with players and staff at Cliftonville.

Paddy McLaughlin’s men are firmly in the running to win a first league title since 2013/14 and Brush says he will be “the happiest man outside of Belfast” if they manage to pull it off.

"There was an underbelly of a feeling at Cliftonville that something was going to explode,” he adds.

"The fans still talk about winning the league two years in a row and Paddy has done a fantastic job.

"People harp on about the part-time set-up but if you do it right, like Paddy is with recruitment, there's no reason you can't do it, like they are showing.

"I'd be one of the happiest men outside of Belfast if Cliftonville won the league!

"I still speak to Paddy now, the goalkeeping coach and a couple of the lads. It would be amazing. Hopefully they can keep it going and I would be over the moon if they managed to cling on."