New England Revolution striker Pat Noonan's goal on Saturday night was a long time in coming.
If you were searching for Noonan's most recent goal in league play in this season's statistics, you would not have found it. The Revolution striker's last goal in league play came on June 25, 2005 against the MetroStars.
More than 14 months later, Noonan scored his first league goal of the 2006 season Saturday night against New York at Gillette Stadium, the only goal of the game in the victory against the Red Bulls.
"It was satisfying, no question," Noonan said. "It was nice to help out a little bit."
That help arrived in the form of the eighth-minute game-winner. Steve Ralston slotted a through ball around the Red Bulls defense. Noonan did the rest, latching on to Ralston's pass and curling his effort around Red Bulls 'keeper Jon Conway with the outside of the right boot.
"[The pass] was perfect," Noonan said. "[Ralston] put just enough weight on it so the defender [Carlos Mendes] had to kind of reach out thinking he had it and I was able to get a little push on it to get my balance but it was a perfectly weighted ball."
It was a terrific early goal. But the Revolution were almost left rueing plenty of other opportunities they didn't finish off.
"We need to do a better job with our chances. We kept them hanging around too long tonight. When you do that, it just takes one slip and then, all of a sudden, the game's tied when it shouldn't be," said Revolution head coach Steve Nicol. "A few times (we) went one-on-one with their goalkeeper, and we need to do a better job with that. But we got one, and we can't complain with one."
The goal continued a torrid run of form for Noonan against the New York club. In 14 career regular season games, Noonan has scored 11 times. Add in playoff meetings and the tally grows to 14 goals in 18 appearances.
This was Noonan's first appearance in three weeks after being sidelined with a hamstring injury. It lasted only 18 minutes as the Revolution striker was withdrawn with an injury to his right hip flexor.
The new injury will be assessed early in the week, but Noonan expressed a hopeful attitude about the new knock.
"I'm not really worried about it," Noonan said. "I was just kind of worried about getting out there and getting a full game in but obviously it didn't happen which was kind of disappointing."
There will be other chances for Noonan as the season winds down. The win on Saturday night consolidates the Revolution's playoff credentials, extending its lead on fifth-place New York to five points while maintain a four-point gap with Chicago in the chase for second place.
Noonan is focused on returning to the field on the field with more timely goals and consistent production as the team chases home-field advantage in the playoffs.
"It's frustrating," Noonan said. "I wanted to help the team and stay consistent but I haven't been able to do that. But I hope to find a way down the stretch to stay healthy and stay on the field."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
