Nothing captures human guile and grace – and the brevity of earthly beauty – as perfectly as a split second of athletic genius

The goal for which Joey Beauchamp will best be remembered came on Easter weekend 1996: a combination, appropriately, of human grace and miraculous providence. The last minutes of the game; a Blackpool defender heads the ball clear; it falls to Beauchamp who leaps to pull it down and then arches his body, head over the ball, shooting it skywards. It balloons for a perilous moment before it dips, just in time, kissing the underside of the crossbar. The club’s greatest ever player; the game’s decisive moment; the crucial match of the season; the winner will be promoted in May. The Manor Ground in Headington, Oxford, is full that spring afternoon; 20,000 Oxford United fans watch the flight of the ball from different angles. As the ball dips and wobbles, there is silence and stillness of breath. Then the net shivers, the players wheel away and the fans realise what has just happened.