Every now and again, a regular bloke will find himself going viral on the internet and subsequently, a new legend is born.
Having his moment now is a regular football groundsman simply just doing his job.
But lads, does he do his job! He really got the assignment – and went above and beyond.
It’s fair to say it’s been a pretty frosty weekend, with the Met Office having snow and ice warnings in place as much of the UK experiences cold weather.
And with that comes disruptions like freezing over of football pitches.
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Volunteer groundsman Paul Robinson was on duty on Friday (1 December) to see if Mossley AFC’s pitch would be up to standard for Saturday’s match.
The Greater Manchester team shared a video of the legend to X.
The caption reads: “In advance of tomorrow’s match, we called in two experts with extensive experience of the dew point, phase change and crystal growth.
“Using cutting edge technology, we’re now able to share the findings of their revolutionary experiment.”
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And that ‘cutting edge technology’ is Paul and his shovel.
The bloke stands on the frosty-looking pitch as he does his ‘annual shovel test’.
Given the command to ‘drop the shovel’, he gives a thumbs up and a warning: “Shovel dropping.”
Unsurprisingly, the clank of this high-quality tech drops onto the ground with a bounce and a clank – all the research needed to confirm the pitch was not in a playable state.
A pitch inspection update was issued to say: “Thanks to Paul dropping the shovel, we’re now allowed a pitch inspection at 4.00pm today.”
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Thanks to Paul’s expert dropping of the shovel, he’s became an icon online as fans demand he gets a promotion.
Plenty called it ‘brilliant’ and a ‘ground-breaking’ test.
“He needs a promotion,” people demanded.
And others joked: “I hope we have patented this technique.”
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One even put: “Pity we don’t have VAR, I’m sure the shovel wasn’t perpendicular before the order to drop was given.”
A chairman at the club also chimed in to say: “Forgot to mention, [Paul] has had that shovel has served him well, he’s had it for over 20 years…..you know what they say….look after your shovel….”
Other teams have even picked up the shovel trick as Mossley AFC say: “Matchday income is crucial to clubs, so we’d encourage everyone to wrap up warm and get along to a local match that beats the shovel test!”
Jess Battison