“In the first round of the 2014 NSW Premier League, Blacktown Spartans player Nathan Millgate scored a hat-trick in the Spartans’ 6-1 thrashing of the Sutherland Sharks,” begins Graham Clayton. “All three of Millgate’s goals were headers. Have there been any other examples of a player scoring a headed hat-trick in a game?”
Well, did you know that Sir Trevor Brooking once scored a hat-trick of headers in the 1980 FA Cup final? Which was quite funny actually, if you think about it for a moment, because he never actually scored many goals with his head, but then he scored three in the cup final! Wow.
Wait. That’s not right, is it. Let’s start again – and where better than with the most obvious answer of all? “Duncan Ferguson scored a headed hat-trick in a 3-2 win for Everton against Bolton on 28 December 1997,” Derry Morgan emails. Was there ever any doubt? Of course not. But it turns out that Ferguson does not belong to such an exclusive club.
“No child of the 90s could forget Tomas Skuhravy’s effort for a then-still-united Czechoslovakia in the 1990 World Cup last-16 game against Costa Rica,” writes Mark van Dijk. “Maybe it was the occasion, maybe it was the scarcity (like Graham, I can’t recall many headed hat-tricks before or since) … But it was probably the sight of Skuhravy’s mullet in full flow that makes this one so memorable. The Czechoslovaks won 4-1 (then lost to West Germany in the quarter-final), and Skuhravy became a perennial hey-it’s-that-guy figure whenever we saw him play in Serie A for Genoa.” Miroslav Klose also did it in the World Cup – Ed Kirton-Darling notes that three of his five goals in that 8-0 win over Saudi Arabia in 2002 were with his noggin.
And how about speedy headed trebles? “Jordan Rhodes scored a hat-trick of headers for Huddersfield in a 4-0 League One win over Exeter in 2009,” points out Jack Leahy. “Having scored all three goals within the space of eight minutes, his is still the quickest ever headed hat-trick. The record was previously held by Dixie Dean, who scored a headed hat-trick in 10 minutes in his incredible title-winning season with Everton in 1927-28. Those were three of 60 league goals netted in the one season.”
To Holland. “On 19 August 2007, Ajax won 8-1 at De Graafschap in the Dutch top flight, with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scoring four goals: one penalty and three headers,” says Vincent de Kreek, helpfully providing evidence. Matthew Jones, meanwhile, brings us news of Edinson Cavani: “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of people posting this link of Edinson Cavani scoring all of Napoli’s goals in a 3-0 mauling of Juventus in 2011, with each coming off that exquisite bonce of his. It’s not surprising he chooses to head such a low ball for his third given that he clearly left his shooting boots at home on 2min 38sec. Interestingly, it appears that only lank-haired Uruguyan strikers need apply to this particular hall of fame, with Sebastian “El Loco” Abreu also scoring a headed hat-trick as Botafogo beat Resende 5-2 one year earlier in 2010.”
David Chalmers has more: “The best I recall was by the peerless Alan Gordon of Hibernian, who notched a second-half hat-trick against Dundee in a 3-3 draw, January 1973: a near-post header from an out-swinging cross; a back-post header from an inswinging cross; topped off with a spectacular diving header from a driven cross. His opponent that day, George Stewart, was very strong in the air and had been considered a possible replacement for Jack Charlton at Leeds. Also, the 1963 European Cup semi-final between Milan and Dundee finished 5-1 to the Italians, and every single goal came from a header in open play.”
And finally, here’s Mark Andrews trumping everybody else. “I can go one better,” he boasts. “Or rather Wimbledon’s Eddie Reynolds could. In the 1963 FA Amateur Cup final, Reynolds scored all four goals for Wimbledon in their 4-2 win over Sutton United. All four were headers, and he remains the only man to have scored four headers in a game at Wembley.”
FAILING TO BUILD ON FINISHING SECOND (2)
“Liverpool are making a habit of coming second and then not following it up,” Patrick Routledge noted last week. “Are they the masters of failing to build on promising seasons?”
Well our very own Scott Murray found efforts from Liverpool, Manchester United and Preston North End, while Aston Villa were the worst offenders. But Jörg Michner brings us word from Italy. “In fact AS Roma can better Liverpool’s and even Aston Villa’s ‘achievement’,” he writes. “The Italian outfit came in second 12 times and never went on to win the title the following season. They have been seven-time runners-up since the turn of the millennium alone. The full list: 1930–31, 1935–36, 1980–81, 1983–84, 1985–86, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10 and 2013–14.”
FOODIE COMBOS (2)
Two weeks ago we looked at teams with players whose surnames are food-related and William Hogg has been in touch with Albion Rovers news.
“Haven’t as yet seen anything from passing Albion Rovers fans,” he begins. “So … on 9 January 1971, Albion Rovers lost 0-2 to Stenhousemuir despite the spicy (!) efforts of Bill Currie at left-back, Sid Sage at centre-half and Albert Rice at inside-right. Not sure if this trio played again, but there is at least this one instance.” And William even has the relevant Evening Times newspaper cutting (on the far right of page 10) to prove it.
KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
“Has any team ever gone down with a positive goal difference,” askedDavid Lynch in 2004. “And has any team ever been promoted with a negative one?”
The answer then was yes and (maybe) no. There are numerous examples of teams going down with a positive goal difference – and, as is usually the case, the biggest hard-luck story of them all came from Maine Road. “Manchester City completed an awesome double in 1937-38,” said Ian Kay. “Not only did they become the only team ever to be relegated with a positive goal difference, they also became the only team ever to be relegated the year after being champions. As if that wasn’t enough, they went down after falling five places on the last day of the season - and despite being top scorers in the whole division.”
At least they were not alone. “Sheffield United had a goal difference of +2 when they were relegated from the old Third Division in 1981,” added Timothy Green. Moving further afield, Milan (1979-80) and Napoli (1949-50) were both relegated with healthy goal differences because of unhealthy corruption allegations.
While we’re overseas, Robert Langschwager came up with umpteen examples, the best of which involved everyone’s favourite second club: EAR Rethymno Kriti, who dropped out of the Greek Third Division with a positive goal difference of +11 in 1998-99. Mind you, five out of the division’s 12 teams were relegated that season.
• For thousands more questions and answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive.
CAN YOU HELP?
“Amidst Watford’s current policy of replacing their manager every other week, their last five league fixtures have been against Brighton, Brentford, Blackburn, Bournemouth and Blackpool, all of whose team names start with the letter B,” writes Owen Keating. “Has any other team ever played so many consecutive league games against teams whose names start with the same letter?”
“What with Watford on their fourth manager, sitting third in the Championship, have any clubs previously had more managers in a season than their finishing position in the table,” poses Ewan Minter. “And probably excluding teams with two managers and finishing first, which I imagine has happened quite a few times.”
“Has an injury ever delayed play by so long in a televised Saturday lunchtime game that the final whistle came after 3pm, so the broadcasters were unable to show the conclusion of the match because of the black-out laws?” asks Ian Burnett.
• Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com.
