Every Sports Fan's Dream: Spectator Recruited From the Stands and Scores Game-Tying Goal

It's an avid sports fan's fantasy to be picked from the stands to save the day when a player is injured, making one's professional debut with a game-tying point. This dream come true is exactly what happened to a 20-year-old university student from Scotland who, until this month, only played on a club soccer team.

The Scottish Sun reports Sarah Crilly had practiced with the women's national soccer team the day before as they were low on players to train against. As a spectator in the stands the next day when several players were injured in a match against Norway, though, Crilly was taken from the bleachers, placed into shoes two sizes too big and set out on the field.

The Sun reports bringing in Crilly as a player was technically against the rules but the referee allowed it.

Here's Crilly's account of the events:

“At the end they said I should come and watch the match. So I was standing with all my friends waiting on a cup of tea when the team administrator came up and asked if I had my boots with me. I didn’t.

“So she took me to the changing rooms, and got me kitted out.

“The shorts were way too big and baggy, and I was wearing three pairs of socks. I must have looked ridiculous.”

Crilly was brought in with five minutes left to the game and Scotland behind by one. In true Lifetime movie fashion, Crilly was the one to score the game-tying goal.

“I couldn’t believe it when I scored. It was incredible," she told the Sun.

Although the game against Norway may have been more relaxed, the Sun reports the Scottish team was using it as a warm-up for Euro 2013 qualifying games against Wales and France later this month.

Deadspin included this radio interview with Crilly:

Check out more pictures of Crilly from the game in the Sun's article here.