These players must have had very small portions of turkey and laid off of the beer over the festivities are they showed their opponents their new shooting boots from Santa on Boxing day with some sweet strikes.

Last week there were no League 1 or 2 matches with the FA Cup 2nd Round taking place so this feature took a week off and thats not to say there were some great goals scored in the FA Cup. Bristol Rovers for example scored some right peaches against AFC Totton - but would it be fair to say that they are great goals when the two teams are separated by three divisions?
Anyhow - not a fantastic selection to pick from this week but there was a clear winner. I had just had to have the Wycombe goal against Chesterfield in the top 3 because it was just insane - were the defence just playing ping pong with the attack?

Many have tried - and many have failed (but that's for another time). But right here we are about to witness when players get it right and score with one pass straight from the kick-off at the beginning of a match.

There is an art to this - first of all to have enough strength in your shooting leg to hit the ball this far. Secondly - the vision to see that the opportunity in the first place; maybe the opposing goalkeeper is making some last minute prayers and is not concentrating. Thirdly - the accuracy in which to hit the ball goal bound and not see it looping out of play for a throw in.

I suppose there are many claims as to what is the fastest goal of all time but to measure it accurately I would think that you would probably need to take it down as far as to the 100th of a second as these video clips will prove.

Last week Crystal Palace were on the receiving end of two of the three strikes of the week. This week they struck back with vengeance in the League Cup against none other than Manchester United. There were some great strikes this week from many other teams making the top 3 choice extra difficult.

Two very special free kicks for you but for very different reasons. They are both from international matches from different parts of the world and firstly we have a strike from Ukraine midfielder Aliev against Turkey - what a strike!

Secondly we have what can only be described as a bit of a bizarre free kick scored by Japan in an Under 21's match against Hong Kong. The way this ball spins in mid-air and completely deceives the keeper is just wild. What is made extra special about this clip is the commentary team - can we have these guys in England?  

Crystal Palace will be glad to see the back of Leicester City's Paul Gallagher who features in our top three with two of the entries from the match between the two teams last weekend. It was also a great start for Nigel Pearson on his return as manager to the club to replace Sven Goran Eriksson and now puts them just two points outside of the play-off places. They were one of the pre-season favourites for the title after spending a lot of cash on players and despite their start it is not too late to catch up with the leaders although Southampton and West Ham are looking like the most likely candidates to take the top two spots right now meaning that Leicester and the rest may have to be content with competing for play-off spots - but there is still a long way to go and anything can happen!