Soccer AM

Bullen: captain fantastic

You can't beat going in goal and keeping clean sheets against Millwall!

Lee Bullen
Quotes of the week

Lee Bullen dropped into the Soccer AM studio and revealed why the terrace chant of 'we all dream of a team of Bullen's' wasn't that far fetched!

The Sheffield Wednesday captain, who is currently injured, is something of a rarity in that he has played in every single position during his career, including in goal!

"I actually started out as a centre forward but various managers didn't think I was good enough", he explained.

"I eventually moved back to centre half and right back where I've been for the majority of my career."

In 2006 Bullen confirmed his cult status among the Wednesday fans when he went in goal against Millwall and kept a clean sheet.

With the Owls keeper David Lucas having to be stretchered off after twisting his knee and no obvious replacement on the bench the scene was set for Bullen to become the hero, and he didn't disappoint making a number of saves as Wednesday ran out 1-0 winners.

"You can't beat going in goal and keeping clean sheets against Millwall," he said.

"Paul Sturrock was the manager at the time and he tended to go without a goalkeeper on the bench so we'd talked about it in the past, but we never thought that it was going to happen."

The Scottish defender described in detail how he played a vital part in the winning goal that day.

With Millwall's players celebrating a goal which the referee had in fact disallowed, Bullen took advantage by launching the ball up field and the rest as they say is history!

"There were about eight of them going towards the linesman celebrating with their own fans", he said. "In the mean time I've just put it down and played on and we've just gone straight up the park and scored ten seconds later!"

Under pressure

The Scottish defender began his career north of the border with Meadow Bank Thistle, but has plied his trade all across the world playing as far afield as Australia, Hong Kong and China.

Despite a successful start to his Wednesday career, after joining in the summer of 2004, the Owls are currently hovering dangerously above the relegation zone in the Championship and Bullen blamed their early season form when they lost their opening six games for their poor league position.

"Since then we've been swimming against the tide all season to try and get ourselves out of it," he explained.

"We went on a decent run of form in October-November time when we got ourselves up to seventh from bottom, but you're always under pressure to continue that and the Championship being the league that it is, everyone can beat everyone so you get sucked back into the relegation area.