'Wonder goal' follows baby death

Billy Sharp's 2-day-old son, Luey Jacob Sharp, died on Saturday. Yet, somehow, Sharp still found the courage, the fortitude and the will to turn out and score for his team, Doncaster Rovers, on Tuesday night in English football's second-tier league, the Championship.

Before kickoff, Sharp cried as his fellow footballers and spectators marked his baby's brief life with a minute of applause. Admirers on Twitter quickly and rightly noted that Sharp's professionalism starkly contrasted with the spoiled-brat behavior of the far better-paid and better-known star Carlos Tevez, who rowed with his club, Manchester City, over his manager's allegations that he refused to do what he was told.

Doncaster manager Dean Saunders said Sharp phoned him the night before the match to say that he wanted to play.

"Unbelievable, really, considering what's happened. I mean, you know, how bad can it get?" Saunders said. "But, sometimes, getting out on the pitch is the best possible way of putting your mind at ease a little bit."

It was, in short, one of those sporting moments where people transcend themselves, where they inspire, touch our hearts and our souls, generate respect and a rainbow of emotions that can run from distraught to delighted.

Billy Sharp called it the "most important goal of my career." It was certainly the most emotional. Just three days after the death of his baby son, the Doncaster striker scored the opening goal in his team's 3-1 loss to Middlesbrough in a second-tier Championship game.