Glaswegian Lee Morton struck a stunning brace to earn a 2-2 draw with Netherlands just a few years after nearly quitting hockey altogether.
Morton is one of the most gifted players that Britain has produced but having been dropped from the GB programme in 2019, was on the brink of leaving the sport.
Just a few yards from the spot where fellow Scot Eric Liddell won gold at the 1924 Games, a moment immortalised in ‘Chariots of Fire’, Morton scripted his own sporting fairytale with two brilliantly taken goals in the last five minutes.
“I had given up on the Olympic dream,” said the 29-year-old.
“I was at rock bottom and going to quit, but I stuck with it and to be here now with all of my family watching, it’s pretty special.”
Morton's magical moment was witnessed by scores of his nearest and dearest, with his brother surprising the family by flying in from Australia to watch the Games.
Fighting spirit 💥💥
— Team GB (@TeamGB) July 30, 2024
Our men's hockey team come back and earn a hard fought draw. Coming from 2-0 down with 5mins to go against the Netherlands, the world number one team!
📽️ @BBCSport #Paris2024pic.twitter.com/A3yUiSJC8T
Princess Anne was also in the building, sporting a natty Team GB bucket hat to shield from broiling Parisian heat, and duly rewarded with a thrilling contest between the top two nations in the world.
After goals from Floris Wortelboerk and Thijs van Dam left his side chasing the game, Morton weaving his way through the box and crashing home to halve the deficit with five minutes on the clock.
In the dying moments, the ball sat up beautifully for Morton who lashed home a fierce leveller to silence a Dutch-dominated crowd.
It was a crucial intervention in the context of Team GB’s ambitions to win their first gold medal in men’s hockey since Seoul 1988.
Having thrashed Spain 4-0 in their opener, Paul Revington’s side had to come from behind to earn a 2-2 draw against South Africa and their resilience was laid bare once more in an epic encounter with the Dutch, who they could easily meet again in the medal matches.
“We never give up,” said Morton. “Until that final whistle blows, we’ll back ourselves to create chances and score goals.
“We thought it was pretty harsh to be 2-0 down, so to come back in the last few minutes and salvage a point was good. We keep an unbeaten record and overall, very happy.”
Aldi are proud Official Partners of Team GB & ParalympicsGB, supporting all athletes through to Paris 2024
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here