Since the severity of the international coronavirus outbreak has finally been understood, by most of us at least, the big debates in football have shifted from VAR and promotion and relegation candidates to much more unprecedented discussions.
The Premier League and EFL are suspended until the end of April at the earliest, and there is a growing consensus that football’s moratorium will last several months longer than that as the Government and NHS bid to inhibit the spread of the disease.
Doubt and uncertainty, therefore, is growing over the outcome of the current season. The EFL and Premier League, at this stage, are insistent on waiting it out and resuming and completing the campaign when safe to do so.
In England’s non-league structure, however, the season is set to be terminated immediately – an unprecedented measure in post-war times.
One method that has been used before in English football to settle matches and competitions, however, is a coin toss – as Bristol Rovers found out to their misfortune in 1992, missing out on playing in Europe for the first time in the club’s history.
A couple of away days in Italy in the current climate are an unappealing proposition, but without the covid-19 crisis to contend with Gasheads would be queuing up for the chance to follow the blue and white quarters on foreign shores.
The Gas, playing in division one after the creation of the Premier League, were involved in the revamped Anglo Italian Cup.
The tournament pitted second-tier sides from both countries against each other after a brief qualifying round.
The Gas were drawn in group eight alongside West Ham United and Southend United, and Rovers started with a decent point away at Upton Park on September 2 in a 2-2 draw.
Julian Dicks put the Hammers ahead twice, but Marcus Stewart displayed his predatory instincts to net a brace of his own in front of less than 5,000 at the Boleyn Ground – a post-war record low.
Dennis Rofe’s Gas then put three past the Shrimpers at Twerton Park on September 16, with Stewart, Carl Saunders and Paul Hardyman getting the goals.
That meant West Ham had to better Rovers’ three-goal margin if they were to qualify and set up ties with Cremonese, Reggiana, Cosenza and Pisa.
But Billy Bonds’ Irons matched Rovers’ result, winning 3-0 at Roots Hall a fortnight later, meaning both sides had identical records.
The only solution, according to the authorities, was to toss a coin.
Some 28 years on, history has become somewhat warped on where this exactly took place, but the most common recollection appears to be the Roots Hall referees room, where Alvin Martin called heads and won with Rovers’ cursing their fortune at the other end of the phone.
It remains the closest the Gas have come to playing in a European competition, while Hammers fans enjoyed adventures in to Lombardy and Calabria – though they were knocked out in the group stage despite picking up seven points from four games.
That is the last time a coin toss was used to determine such an outcome in English football, though there were a couple of famous examples before that.
The most bizarre of which was a European Cup quarter-final 1965 between Cologne and Liverpool, who had played out two goalless draws and drew a replay 2-2 after extra time.
It seems they’d all had enough, and the semi-finalist was to be determined by the toss of a coin, which was botched on the first go.
The coin landed sideways and planted itself in the mud, but on the second attempt Liverpool called correctly and advanced to the next round.
But will this method be used again to solve the chaos which has torn up the sporting calendar? Probably not…
