“Which non-league teams have made it into European football competition?” asks Chris Devonshire-Ellis. “I’m sure there are some local heroes out there.”
This one has got Wales all over it. “A few Welsh teams playing in the lower divisions of the English pyramid have qualified by winning the Welsh Cup, although they’ve been ineligible since 1996,” begins Mark Barnes. “Before the ban, Bangor City, of the Northern Premier League, made it to Europe and performed remarkably well. They qualified for the 1985-86 Cup Winners’ Cup and played Norwegian side Fredrikstad FK, going through on away goals after a 1-1 draw in Norway was followed by a 0-0 at home.
“The second round brought on European giants Atlético Madrid, with the Spanish team winning 3-0 on aggregate [Bangor went down 2-0 at home and 1-0 in the away leg]. The atmosphere inside the Vicente Calderón was fantastic. We brought about 200 to 300 Bangor fans over with us and with them knowing they were going to win the tie, the Spaniards gave us a great ovation. In the end they were on our side. [This 2015 piece marked the 30th anniversary of the tie, player Neville Powell recalling: “It was a night I’ll never forget. The Spaniards really looked after us and gave each of us a commemorative sword with the name Atlético Madrid on it. You’d never get one through customs nowadays.”]
“Remarkably, in their first foray into European competition, the 1962-63 Cup Winners’ Cup, Bangor City beat Napoli 2-0 at home, as a Cheshire league club. Following a 3-1 reversal in Italy, Napoli needed a play-off at Highbury in London to finally advance 2-1, as there were no away goals in those days” There is also some great Super 8 film in Naples from Bangor’s Ken Birch that’s well worth a watch.
But the Citizens aren’t the only lowly-ranked Welsh club to make it into Europe, and John Brunsdon picks up the tale. “I was one of the 14,000 crammed into Penydarren Park to witness Merthyr Tydfil – then of the seventh-tier Beazer Homes League (Southern League) – beat Atalanta 2-1 in the first leg of a Cup Winners’ Cup first-round tie,” he recalls of a game settled by goals from Kevin Rogers and Ceri Williams. “We’d got there courtesy of a win over Newport in the Welsh Cup, buoyed by a strikeforce of 60-goal-a-season Martyrs legend Dai Webley and ageing ex-Birmingham hero Bob Latchford. Sadly, we lost 2-0 in the away leg but it still remains one of my best football memories. There’s a good report of it here. Incidentally, as it was 1987 and English clubs were banned from Europe, Merthyr were the only club from the English pyramid in Europe that year.”
Webley would reflect on the game a decade later. “That contest was unbelievable,” he told the Sunday People. “We were up against a Serie A side who had a number of star names, including the Swedish captain Glenn Strömberg. We all believed we could go to Italy and sneak a draw in the second leg, but they proved just too strong for us.” Lyn Jones, the part-timers’ manager, added in 2012: “What a night. I still believe to this day we should have won the tie over the two legs. They were special times. It took us around 10 games to win the Welsh Cup and then we ran a team who had qualified through the Italian Cup incredibly close. My players were tremendous. They all worked incredibly hard and stayed disciplined.”
It has since spawned a film, The Martyrs of 87, a trailer for which you can watch here.
And here are extended Italian highlights of the famous first leg.
The earliest equaliser
“The fastest goals in football are well known, but has a team ever equalised in the first minute?” wonders James W. “What about the quickest times to reach other scorelines … 2-2, 3-3, etc?”
“A quick near-answer to one of the questions posed, and it involves one of the early games of Coventry City’s triumphant Checkatrade Trophy campaign, at home to Northampton Town in October,” notes John Baker. “Short-lived loan ‘star’ Dan Agyei scored a brilliant solo goal for City after just 20 seconds, but a minute later Coventry, true to most of this season’s form, conceded when Marc Richards equalised – meaning the score was 1-1 after 90 seconds or so.” It finished 3-1 to the Sky Blues.
Dirk Maas offers up a Serie A belter from 13 September 1992, “the match between newly-promoted Pescara and reigning champions Milan. Thanks to Massimiliano Allegri, Pescara took the lead in the first minute. Paolo Maldini equalised two minutes later and Gianluigi Lentini gave the Rossoneri the lead in the fifth minute. However, two own goals by Franco Baresi in the 12th (2-2) and 14th minutes gave the scoreline an unexpected turn. Pescara increased the margin in the 23rd minute. Thanks to Marco van Basten, who scored two goals in quick succession (37th and 39th minutes), to make it 4-4. In the second half, Van Basten completed his hat-trick, which settled a 5-4 win for Milan.”
Any more for any more? Drop us a line at knowledge@theguardian.com.
Portugal’s king of promotions: another update
Another season, another promotion for Portuguese coach Vitor Oliveira. The ever helpful Romeu Duarte reports that, last weekend, Oliveira secured his ninth promotion to the Primeira Liga (“or 10th if we count the 33 games with Moreirense FC in 2013-14 before being replaced”). He adds: “This time with Portimonense, who lost this weekend but benefited from the defeat of previously third-placed Varzim. Also, amazingly, this was achieved with different teams every time. The list, spanning 26 years: Paços de Ferreira 1990-91, Académica 1996-97, U. D. Leiria 1997-98, Belenenses 1998-99, Leixões 2006-07, Arouca 2012-13, Moreirense 2013-14, União de Madeira 2014-15, Chaves 2015-16 and Portimonense 2016-17. There are more details of past promotions in this link (in Portuguese).”
Knowledge archive
“I was recently watching the third Test between India and West Indies,” wrote Manas Phadke in 2011. “I was quite surprised to see Billy Doctrove (who is an umpire) sitting in a stand named after him wearing a Liverpool jersey and kissing the badge for the cameras. Are there any other umpires in international cricket (present or past) who have publicly pledged their allegiance to a football club?”
Roy Proctor was on hand with a few answers. “The most obvious cricket umpire to have a publicly acknowledged football affiliation is the incomparable Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird who, in an article for the Guardian in 2008, proclaimed: ‘I’ve supported Barnsley for 70 years so there’s no way I will miss this afternoon.’” The afternoon in question was an FA Cup quarter-final between the Tykes and Chelsea, a match that Barnsley won. Roy went on: “Another, more current, umpire is Ian Gould, a wicketkeeper who played in goal for Slough Town and Arsenal, earning him the nickname ‘Gunner’. In July 2009, Gould became chairman of Burnham FC of the Southern Football League. And although I’m not sure which team he supports, the legendary West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor, like Gould, was a goalkeeper, playing for Jamaica at schoolboy level. He went on to be a referee and took charge of a World Cup qualifier.”
Can you help?
“I’m not making any prediction about the outcome of the forthcoming Scottish Cup final (nor league positions, which aren’t finalised yet either), but we have the prospect in Scotland of Celtic winning the treble, and Aberdeen finishing runners-up in all three competitions,” begins Alistair Murdoch. “Is anyone aware of any similar situations, with treble winners and also treble runners-up – or better?” Michael Ballack and Leverkusen aside.
“The 24 teams in this season’s Ryman League Division One South scored 2,029 goals between them (an average of 3.68 goals per match),” notes Andrew Wilson. “Has this total ever been beaten?”
“Keiron Cunningham was recently sacked by St Helens after a bad run of form in Super League. He was was a club legend and as such had a statue stood outside Saints’ Langtree Park. Has a football manager ever been sacked by a club who have already honoured them with a statue?” asks Gregg Bakowski.
“After a random work conversation led to deconstructing the old v new Sheffield Wednesday club badges, we got on to the subject of how there seem to be lots of club badges with footballs, but none with goals, goalposts or nets,” exclaims Michael Pilcher. “As the ultimate aim of the beautiful game is to stick the ball in the goal as often as possible, it seems strange these aren’t reflected more. Our Google work yielded no success – can anyone provide examples of club badges with depictions of goals?”
“Norwich beat Brighton 2-0 thanks to two own goals off unlucky Brighton keeper David Stockdale’s back,” writes Stan Beal. “Has anything similar ever happened?”
“Who would be the shortest ever player to have become an international star,” asks Peter Van.
“During my afternoon coffee break Wiki-crawl, I came across the career statistics of Robbie Earle,” mails Joe Ward. “Port Vale: 294 appearances and 77 goals; Wimbledon: 284 appearances and 59 goals. Now, it’s not a million miles away that his record for both clubs would be the same. Has anyone got anything close to identical – and significant – statistics for clubs in their career?”
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