“My team, Southampton, are due to play Leeds on the last day of the Championship season. Both are currently in the playoff places, so it’s possible they could meet in three consecutive games (one in the league, two in the playoff semi-finals). Are there longer strings of consecutive fixtures between two sides?” wonders Rupert Sheard.
You’re thinking about FA Cup marathons, aren’t you? We were too when we read this question, though it turns out most of them were rudely interrupted by league matches [disclaimer: we’re not going to focus on leagues with two teams and so on].
Talking of everyone’s favourite nine-month sporting format, Chris Roe writes in to say, in the top four English divisions and excluding playoffs, there have been 19 instances of teams playing three consecutive league games against each other. The most recent was 76 years ago. Bristol Rovers ended their 1947-48 Division 3 (South) season by beating Ipswich 2-0 at home and 4-0 away, wins that meant they finished outside the bottom two and therefore did not have to apply for re-election to the league. The two clubs were reunited on the opening day of the 1948-49 season, when Ipswich returned to Eastville Stadium and won 6-1. The summer fitness regime of the Rovers players was not disclosed.
As Rob Kaye points out, there wasn’t quite the same back and forth when Hull played Middlesbrough in four successive games in the 1967-68 season. All the games were played in an 11-day period: three in the FA Cup third round and one in the old Division Two.
27 January: Middlesbrough 1-1 Hull
31 January: Hull 2-2 Middlesbrough
3 February: Middlesbrough 2-1 Hull (Division Two)
7 February: Hull 0-1 Middlesbrough
“We were,” writes Rob, “pretty sick of seeing Middlesbrough after that.”
So were Tannadice’s finest after running into the Celtic juggernaut nine years ago. “My team, Dundee United, played Celtic four times consecutively in the space of two weeks in March 2015,” offers Gary Wade. “A draw at home in the Scottish Cup, then the Scottish League Cup final a week later. The Scottish Cup replay took place a few days after, and finally there was a league game at Hampden.”
Misery prevents Gary from mentioning the scores: 1-1, 0-2, 0-4, 0-3.
Dan Ryazansky has a similar tale of woe from 2003. “The MetroStars (now NY Red Bulls) were scheduled to end their regular season with two games against the New England Revolution (lost at home 2-1, then in a meaningless finale, lost on the road 5-2). After that, they played New England in a two-game aggregate playoff, losing at home 2-0 and tying on the road 1-1. Ugh. A crappy end to a once-promising season.”
But not to this question, which still has so much love to give. Alun Thomas cites the longest FA Cup tie in history: a six-game marathon between Oxford City and Alvechurch in the fourth qualifying round of the 1971-72 competition. Both teams managed to squeeze a league match in between the first and second replays, so their streak of consecutive matches also ended at four.
There was, however, one FA Cup marathon that wasn’t interrupted by league football. “In January 1955, Stoke City played five consecutive games against Bury, all in the FA Cup third round,” writes Neil Stacey. “To add to the story, the third, fourth and fifth meetings were at prestigious neutral venues: Goodison Park, Anfield and Old Trafford, respectively.”
The matches were all played between 8 and 24 January. The last four went to extra-time – the first replay was abandoned after 112 minutes because of a snowstorm – before Stoke’s “Tim” Coleman finally settled matters with the winning goal in a 3-2 victory. Overall the tie lasted 9hr 22min and produced 19 goals.
“In an added twist,” adds Neil, “the clubs had met in consecutive league games over Christmas. Overall, Stoke faced Bury seven times in eight games and Bury played Stoke seven times in nine!” All seven were played within a calendar month: 25 December 1954 to 24 January 1955. If anyone can beat that, we’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Penalty saves in quick succession
“Sheffield Wednesday’s Cameron Dawson saved two penalties in the first seven minutes of their 4-0 win against Cardiff in the FA Cup third round. There were three minutes between the two. Excluding retakes and shootouts, is that a record?” asks Terry Henfleet.
Dawson saved penalties from Ryan Wintle, who didn’t fancy another crack, and Callum Robinson in the space of three minutes at Hillsborough. Yet there have been at least two quicker cases.
The first has appeared in a previous Knowledge column as the answer to a not dissimilar question. In 2016, the Ayr United keeper Greg Fleming saved two penalties against Dunfermline, both from Kallum Higginbotham, in the space of two minutes. We implore you to watch the video to see football as nature intended. And if anyone knows how he managed to divert the second penalty around the far post, please let us know.
Chelsea’s Tony Godden also saved two penalties in as many minutes when his side won 1-0 at Old Trafford, live on ITV, in September 1986. On that occasion there were two penalty takers, Jesper Olsen and Gordon Strachan. United, in the dog days under Ron Atkinson, lost their sixth league game out of eight as a result. They couldn’t catch a break: the only time they put the ball in the net was a split-second after George Courtney blew to award the first penalty. “United actually failed to score three penalties in five days – all at Old Trafford, all taken by different players,” adds Warren Lyons. “Bryan Robson had missed in a midweek League Cup tie against Port Vale.”
The longest substitution chain
“We all know about subs-being-subbed-off situations (player A is replaced by player B, who is later replaced by player C), but are there examples of longer chains where player C is then replaced by player D, player D is replaced by player E, and player E is replaced by player F?” tweeted Doremus Schafer last November.
An anorak’s dream has been hiding in plain sight. As Edmund Johnson points out, there was a chain of four players and three substitutions when Watford played Hull in December 2022. Hamza Choudhury, on loan to Watford from Leicester City, went off injured after 15 minutes and was replaced by Joseph Hungbo. He didn’t have his finest game and was replaced by Rey Manaj in the 71st minute. In injury-time, Manaj suffered an injury and was replaced by Vakoun Bayo. Alas, with other substitutes waiting, Bayo got through the rest of the game unscathed.”
Revenge hat-tricks (2)
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at the fastest revenge hat-tricks. All the ones mentioned were in away games, ie on their first return to their old club, which has a greater symbolic significance. But there have been a couple of quicker cases on the player’s new home soil.
“Malcolm MacDonald left Newcastle United for Arsenal on 29 July 1976 and scored a hat-trick against them in a 5-3 victory on 4 December that year. Four months and six days later. Beats Josh King,” tweets Steven Richards. It sure does. But it doesn’t beat Lee Elam. “Exeter signed Lee Elam from Weymouth on 15 January 2007,” notes Duncan Fry. “He made his debut on 23 January against Weymouth and scored a hat-trick.”
Knowledge archive
“In the recent match between FC Twente and Vitesse in the Dutch league, Vitesse took off left-back Haim Megrelishvili after only six minutes due to his poor defending,” Rutger Ijzermans told us in 2008. “Is this the quickest ever substitution not due to injury?”
We had two quicker-fire substitutions. For the first we headed to the Wolds and Sincil Bank, where Scott Walden and Harry Winckworth highlighted the case of Lincoln City’s Grant Brown.
Harry picked up the tale on a drab Tuesday night in March 1998 when Swansea were the visitors. “It proved to be John Beck’s last game in charge of Lincoln,” he wrote. “To illustrate how Beck was losing the plot, his original line-up that night contained four centre-backs, two full-backs, two midfielders and two strikers. After just two minutes, Beck replaced club captain and Imps record-appearance holder Grant Brown – a central defender – with the enigmatic and speedy midfielder Steve Brown, to the cat-calls of a bemused home support.
“I remember Beck claiming afterwards that he’d been expecting Swansea to play three up front. However, the Swans lined up with a five-man midfield, much to Beck’s surprise, so rather than push one of our six defenders higher up the pitch, he instead made the earliest tactical substitution I ever recall seeing.” Scott had a more conspiracist explanation, suggesting rather tentatively that the early substitution may have been to embarrass the defender after a previous poor performance.
Andreas Marienborg, though, could just about trump that. “In 2006 Bryne played Tromsdalen in the Norwegian First Division,” he wrote. “Bryne were going through a horrible period injury-wise and had almost no defenders available. But because of Norwegian regulations they weren’t allowed to play their unlicensed under-18 players from the start, though they were allowed to put them on the bench. So injured striker Håvard Sakariassen started as a central defender, only to be substituted after one minute so young Oddgeir Salte could get his debut.”
Can you help?
“I watched Bournemouth Women beat Swindon Town 3-0 at the weekend to make it 10 wins out of 10 in Division One South West. Despite this, they are only second in the table because Exeter City have won 11 from 11. What is the longest that two clubs in the same league have kept up a 100% start?” asks Micki Attridge.
Who is the youngest person to debut in professional football?
— Ash Tray Of Norvik (@AshAshman1) January 16, 2024
“Remina Chiba left JEF United Chiba to join Eintracht Frankfurt. Is it common for players to share a name with their club, and who is the most high profile?” asks MN Aditya.
@TheKnowledge_GU Are there any ex-goalkeepers who have had fruitful careers as managers in top flight leagues or any? I'll give you Nuno Espírito Santo but none others spring to mind to have enjoyed a modicum of success?
— Colin Rogers - #FBPE #FBPR (@weelad00) January 12, 2024
“With news that Aston Villa will be changing kit manufacturers at the end of the season, Adidas will (allegedly) become the 15th different company (including in-house manufacturing) the club has used. Is this a record?” pleads Stuart Fryer.
Are there any Football League venues that only hosted a single game?
— Admiral J Plum (@Supermercado99) January 16, 2024
@TheKnowledge_GU Was looking at the article on Pico Lopes, and then looked at the Cape Verde AFCON squad. 23 players, whose clubs are in 16 different countries. What's the most amount of different (club) countries represented in a 23 man squad for an international tournament?
— Johnthebog (@Johnthebog) January 11, 2024
Lebanon's squad for the current (officially "2023") AFC Asian Cup features players born on all 6 inhabited continents. Has any national team ever done this before?
— Ben (@BenJaneson) January 16, 2024
“The Super Cup thriller between Madrid and Atlético was the 24th managerial meeting between Carlo Ancelotti and Diego Simeone. They also faced each other twice as players. Which managerial head-to-head has happened most often and who comes out better? Bonus question: who’s top of the head-to-head if you also include meetings as players?” asks Louis Leary.
19 Jordan Richards
— Christian James (@bostonutdstats) January 13, 2024
Boston Utd 🤝 Curzon Ashton
This can’t have happened too often @TheKnowledge_GU @FootballCliches @oilysailor ? pic.twitter.com/Z5HSRQ1aJU
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