“As I understand the rules of the game, if any player takes a set piece, they cannot then touch the ball until another player has,” writes Sam Lawrence. “Logically then, if a penalty taker hits the post or bar and follows up on the rebound before anyone else, an indirect free-kick would be given to the defending team. Despite this being a plausible scenario, I can’t ever remember it happening. Has it ever occurred? Is there any grainy video footage of it including angry baffled players advising the referee on where his whistle should be stored?”
In a word Sam, yes. Plenty. But two examples seem to have stuck in the minds of Knowledge readers more than most. Firstly, in 1991, Manchester City’s then player-manager Peter Reid came a cropper against Leeds United at Elland Road. Andrew Brook was far from the only reader to email about Reid, but as he was there, and the first to provide requested grainy footage, we’ll let him take over from here.
“In response to Sam Lawrence, indeed it has,” writes Andrew. “I had the pleasure of witnessing the baffled Peter Reid watch his goal get disallowed after he hit his penalty against the post and scored from the rebound at Elland Road in 1991.” As an aside, John Lukic’s shirt is a delightful added bonus.
Six years later Teddy Sheringham provided Tottenham Hotspur supporters with a reason to chuckle when, making his Manchester United debut, back at White Hart Lane as fate would have it, he failed to convert from the spot in front of the Sky Sports cameras. Over to you Adam Harcus (again, by no means the only reader to recall Teddy’s woe). “On 10 August 1997, Teddy Sheringham took a penalty on his Manchester United debut at White Hart Lane against the Spurs side he left that summer. To the delight of the home fans, he rattled it against the post and hammered the rebound over the bar. However, the rebound would not have counted had it gone in, because of the above rule.” And here is more grainy footage.
Max Edwards also was also able to bring our attention to a more recent example. “This comes from last season’s Ligue 1,” writes Max. “With his Montpellier side trailing 2-0 against Lille, Ryad Boudebouz took a penalty late on. With the ball cannoning back off the post, and landing perfectly at Boudebouz’s feet, he takes a touch before hammering home. The referee then disallows the goal leading to some bemused faces and indignant protests.”
Both Jan Erik Kollstroem and Geoffrey Vivian flagged up poor old Stefan Payne, whose rebound effort for Sutton United against Ramsgate in November 2012 was disallowed – incorrectly, as it turns out. Payne thumped one against the bar and turned the ball home after it bounces back to him, but while the referee appears to have paid plenty of attention at referee school, the Ramsgate goalkeeper later confessed to getting a touch on the ball, thereby making the goal perfectly legal. Sutton went on to win 2-0 to at least soften the blow for Payne.
Corners are also relevant here. Indeed, as Neil McKenzie recalls, there was high controversy in Tottenham’s 1-0 win over Huddersfield in April 1952. Eddie Bailey’s corner struck the referee, rebounded back to him and he immediately swung over a cross for Len Duquemin to head the winner. The referee ought to have blown for an indirect free-kick but instead the goal stood, Huddersfield went down by three points that season while Spurs were unrepentant, commenting in the programme for their next home match: ‘‘The referee’s decision is final, and even if we have been the gainers in this instance there have been previous cases in which we have been the sufferers.” Alas, grainy footage on this occasion has proved elusive.
Finally, here is a demonstration on precisely what to do should you be a spot-kicker and strike your effort against woodwork, as shown by Ian Henderson, courtesy of Dom Thomas.
Prolific penalty takers
“What is the highest number of penalties scored by a player in a single domestic season?” asks Neil Coleman. “Ballymena United (playing in Northern Ireland’s top tier) have defensive midfielder Tony Kane (previously of Blackburn, Stockport, Cercle Brugge and Carlisle), who has scored nine penalties in his 18 games so far this season. What is the record to beat?”
While Kane is undoubtedly prolific from the spot, it appears he still has a way to go before he can usurp “The Bear”. José Luis Zalazar, a former Uruguay attacking midfielder, who made his international debut in a 2-0 win over England in 1984, has a stonking record for his club side Tecos, as Milton from Morelia informs us. “José Luis Zalazar, ‘The Bear’, scored 17 of his 23 goals in the 86-87 season in Mexico from the penalty spot. His team, Tecos, were eliminated on penalties in their quarter-final play-off against Cruz Azul, and it was then that Salazar missed his first penalty of the season.” A bear with a sore head, no doubt.
Moving on, and Bolton Wanderers hall of famer Mário Jardel, who can boast a whopping 20 penalties in a single season, according to Antonio Marreiros: “In the season 2001-02, Brazilian international Mário Jardel scored 42 league goals in 30 games for Sporting Lisbon. From those 42, 16 came from penalties. He scored 20 penalties in all that season, if we include three in the domestic cup and one in the Uefa Cup.”
Taking a stand
“Wolves got Steve Bull off West Bromwich,” tweets Paul Savage. “Later, he got a stand named after him. Any more standees who played for arch rivals?”
“I’m sure you’ll be inundated with people saying that Nottingham Forest have a stand named after Brian Clough who was a legendary manager and won the league at their arch rivals Derby County, not sure what he did at Forest!” joshes Brendan McKinney, and indeed he is right; we have been inundated with Clough emails. And as Andrew Miller points out: “Although the question asked for the names of players who had stands named after them after playing for their club’s arch rivals, my team, Nottingham Forest have two stands named after people who managed the club after managing Derby together (Clough and Taylor)…”
Philip Kayes, meanwhile, has another answer, and an equally valid one. “It would be hard to beat Sir Matt Busby. An icon at Manchester United having not only a stand but also a street outside the ground named after him, he also played successfully for Manchester City for eight years as well as captaining Liverpool, where he played for five years (including wartime football).”
Tom Solan continues the Manchester theme, but also brings our attention to goings-on at San Siro. “They also have a statue of Denis Law who signed for Man City after leaving United. But these don’t count as they’re outside the ground. In Milan, the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (usually known as San Siro) is occupied by rivals Milan and Internazionale. Meazza turned out for both sides in his playing days, although he is far more of a legend at Inter than Milan. So both clubs have their whole stadium named after someone who played for their fiercest rivals, who just so happens to be the same bloke.”
And in Scotland, Jim McLean enjoyed a spell at Dundee in the 60s before going on to enjoy legendary status at Tannadice, where the Fair Play stand is named after him. Jamie Watt writes: “McLean played for Dundee between 1965 and 1968, he later went on to become the most successful manager in the club’s history and headbutted a BBC reporter live on TV. In 2011 the Fair Play was renamed after him.”
Using your head
“After England’s 3-0 win over Scotland, where all three goals were headed,” writes Chris Hanham. “I was wondering if anyone knows what is the highest scoring match where all goals scored were headers?”
Well Chris, suffice it to say that as impressive a feat as England’s was against Scotland, three headed goals is the not the most scored in one match. Leicester City – the 1998 vintage – triumphed 4-0 away to Derby County in the Premier League, with headed goals from Emile Heskey (2), Muzzy Izzet and Ian Marshall. And they were 4-0 up in the opening 15 minutes! Thanks to Liam Derry for bringing that one to our attention. But even the Foxes must play second fiddle to Oxford United, who headed six of their best in a 6-0 drubbing of Shrewsbury in 1996, as Graham Clayton informs us.
Car sponsors (II)
“Coventry City have been sponsored by three different car makers in Talbot (1980-83), Peugeot (1989-97) and Subaru (1997-2005),” points out Christian Stoermann-Næss Holum a couple of weeks back. “Can another club beat them for number of different car makers?”
Dirk Maas has an emphatic answer. “Fiorentina have been sponsored by four different car makers: Opel [1983-1986], Toyota [2000-2002, 2004-2010], Mazda [2011-2014] and Volkswagen [2014-now].”
Knowledge archive
“My friend insists there is a specific German word for the goal that takes a team from being 2-0 down to 2-1 down,” wrote Sam Hall in 2006, before gegenpress was part of the parlance of our times, “Does this word exist and what is it?”
Your mate is almost spot on, Sam. “Anschlußtreffer” is the score that reduces a side’s deficit to just one goal - so not only does it apply to the one that takes a team from being 2-0 down to 2-1 down, but also to the goal that makes it 3-2 rather than 3-1, 4-3 instead of 4-2, etc.
Sam’s question, of course, opens up a whole new avenue of exploration – terms in other languages to describe very specific occurrences in football. We went through them in detail back in 2006, from the Czech ‘Anglican’ to ‘Ogebe’ in Yoruba.
- For thousands more questions and answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive.
Can you help?
“I’m watching the Milan derby and it occurred to me that Inter have been sponsored by Pirelli for as long as I can remember,” writes Terence Davidson. “Is this the longest running active shirt sponsor? If not who is, and which company/club holds the all time record?”
“I see Serge Gnabry scored a hat-trick on his international debut,” observes Neil Harrington. “Just wondering how many other players have achieved this feat, or even exceeded it? And if any of them had also been sold by Arsenal for a criminally small amount of money?”
“Since Antonio Conte switched Chelsea to a 3-4-3 formation at half-time in their defeat at Arsenal, they have now scored 17 goals without conceding one. What is the highest amount of goals scored without concession over a series of games (to exclude one-off crazy scores like Arbroath 36-0 Bon Accord, for example!),” asks Antony Gee.
“I was recently reading to my son a children’s novel about a football team. This children’s team goes to a cup tournament and wins the first match (quarters) 3-2 thanks to three own goals,” mails Pablo Miguez. “They then win the semi-final 1-0 thanks to an own goal. And the book ends with the final being 1-1, thanks to an own goal. So my question is: has there been a team who have played three (or more!) consecutive matches, where all their goals are scored by opposition players?”
Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet@TheKnowledge_GU.
