Pushy dad's genius approach to helping his son at football goes viral

We all hope our children will do well in everything that they do.

And most of the time we’ll do everything we can to help them in all their endeavours.

But some parents go the extra mile to help their children succeed, including one dad who wanted to lend his son a little assistance during a football match.

Phil Hatfield, from Wales, was supporting his six-year-old son, Osian in his position as goalkeeper, when he suddenly couldn’t resist giving him a helping hand.

During the under-8s game between Bow Street and Llanilar, near Aberystwyth, goalkeeper Osian was in for a chance to save a goal being shot by the opposite team, but was a bit far out and wouldn’t be able to get to the ball on time.

However, rather than let his son’s team concede the goal, 'pushy' dad Phil decided to lend a helping hand and give his son a little shove so that he blocked the goal with his body.

‘All the action had been on the other half of the field... he hadn’t had much to do,’ Phil told BBC Wales.

‘So I went over to try and keep him focused, keep him going and shouting instructions... he came towards me because he hadn’t heard what I said and [I was] just trying to guide him back to position, and he fell over.’

Unfortunately for the star goalkeeper, whose save had allowed his team Bow Street Magpies to lead 2-0 for the first time ever, a Llanilar player caught the rebound from his save and managed to shoot a goal.

The hilarious video has gone viral across social media, with former Wales goalkeeper Neville Southall even commenting with a bit of advice for little Osian, tweeting: ‘Keep hold of first ball’.

However, the young team’s coach, Amlyn Ifans, said he was oblivious to the goal going in as he was laughing too much.

‘We were bent over laughing so much that we didn’t see the lad put the ball in the net,’ he said.

‘It wasn’t out of the coaching manual... but it was perfect timing.

‘After speaking to the parents they saw the funny side of it and knowing that Osian was quite happy, we’ve all had a good laugh.’

Let’s hope Osian perfects his dive for the next game!