“Aberdeen were thrashed 6-0 by Celtic in the Scottish League Cup, ending a 16-match unbeaten run under Jimmy Thelin. What’s the heaviest defeat to end an unbeaten run?” asked Matthew Shore last week.
We added the caveat of an unbeaten run of at least 15 games, and Chris Roe got busy crunching the numbers, for English football at least. “There have been 487 instances of unbeaten runs in league fixtures of at least 15 matches in length,” he tells us. “Of those, 290 were ended by a single-goal defeat, and 133 by a two-goal margin.”
“The first Football League team to lose their unbeaten run in a defeat by three goals was Preston North End in 1891-92. After a run of 14 wins and one draw, they lost 4-1 to Sunderland on 12 March 1892. Grimsby Town eclipsed that in 1900-01, when their 17-game run was ended by a 5-0 defeat to New Brighton Tower.”
As Daniel Seppings also reported, there are three other teams to lose unbeaten runs with a five-goal defeat, and one is slightly more memorable than the others: Northampton Town (lost 5-0 to Newcastle, 1964-65), Swansea City (lost 5-0 to Luton, 1979-80) … and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, who were thumped 5-0 at Chelsea in October 1999 to end a 29-game unbeaten league run.
Jeremy Simmonds points out that in 1977-78, “Everton lost their opening two matches then went unbeaten for 18 games, before conceding six at home to Manchester United on Boxing Day. They did, however, get on the scoresheet twice themselves.” It finished 6-2 to United, and as Scott Murray writes here, the shattered Toffees went on to lose 3-1 at Leeds just 24 hours later.
Finally, as both Chris and Daniel highlight, there is an English team with a 25-game unbeaten league run who suffered a 7-0 defeat. Step forward Nottingham Forest, whose run across two seasons from February to November 1995 was ended in ruthless fashion by the reigning Premier League champions, Blackburn Rovers.
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Heading south
“With seven London teams and three on the south coast, is this season the least ‘northern’ in English top-flight history?” asks Tim P.
“The short answer is yes, that is correct!!” writes Daniel Seppings, stopping at a disappointing two exclamation marks. “Using Ordnance Survey coordinates for every ground ever used in an English top-flight match, I’ve worked out the average number of miles north a match has been played. For 2024-25, the average distance north of a Premier League match has been 161.4 miles.
“The record before this season was 1987-88, when the average distance north was 162.6 miles and the top division featured seven London teams as well as Oxford, Luton, Watford, Portsmouth and Southampton. The most northerly top-flight season was 1902-03 where the average distance north was 244.9 miles. The league this season featured no teams south of the Midlands.”
Four-midable title winners
Last week, Ralph Neville asked: “Sean Gannon has just won his 11th League of Ireland trophy with his fourth club (Shelbourne). Has any other player won the same league with four or more different clubs previously?”
Pete Tomlin offers a comprehensive answer. “According to my research, there are nine players who have achieved this feat. The first to do so was Alain Geiger, a centre-back who won the Swiss Nationalliga in 1984-85 with Servette, in 1987-88 with Neuchâtel Xamax, in 1991-92 with Sion and finally in 1995-96 with Grasshopper Zurich.”
With Geiger counted, here are eight other players who can match Gannon’s four-peat with different clubs, including Wojciech Szczesny’s dad. Hat-tip to Dave Mellinger, who also emailed in to suggest Brian Mullan:
Timur Kapadze (Uzbekistan Super League, 12 titles) Neftchi Fergana (2000-01), Pakhtakor Tashkent (six from 2001-02 to 2006-07), Bunyodkor Tashkent (three from 2007-08 to 2009-10), Lokomotiv Tashkent (2015-16 and 2016-17).
Joseph Zerafa (Maltese Premier League, six titles) Birkirkara (2009-10, 2012-13), Valletta (2017-18, 2018-19), Hibernians (2021-22), Hamrun Spartans (2023-24).
Maciej Szczesny (Polish Ekstraklasa, five titles) Legia Warsaw (1993-94 and 1994-95), Widzew Lodz (1996-97), Polonia Warsaw (1999-2000), Wisla Krakow (2000-01).
Stefan Kolev (Bulgarian First League, five titles) Levski Sofia (1987-88), CSKA Sofia (1991-92), Slavia Sofia (1995-96), Litex Lovech (1997-98 and 1998-99).
Brian Mullan (MLS Cup, five titles) LA Galaxy (2001-02), San Jose Earthquakes (2002-03), Houston Dynamo (2005-06 and 2006-07), Colorado Rapids (2009-10).
Nikolay Mashichev (Estonian Liiga, five titles) TVMK Tallinn (2005), Flora Tallinn (2010, 2011), FC Infonet (2016), Kalju FC (2018).
Cheng Siu Chung (Hong Kong First Division, four titles) Eastern (1994-95), Instant-Dict (1997-98), South China (1999-2000), Happy Valley (2002-03).
Hassan Sunny (Singapore Super League, four titles) Tampines Rovers (2010-11), Warriors FC (2013-14), Lion City Sailors (2020-21), Albirex Niigata Singapore (2022-23).
Palindromes: an update
Last week, we sent up the Knowledge fact-signal in the hope Chris Roe (or another kind soul) might look into true palindromic results – where the scores are reversed as well as the pattern of results. Well, Chris came to the rescue. “So, if we consider this second interpretation, then the longest such sequence in the English league is of eight matches, a record jointly achieved nine times, by eight different teams.”
“First to set the record were Watford back in 1921, starting on the 5 March …
“… and the most recent was MK Dons, from 18 March 2023 …
“Only one team has done it twice – Mansfield Town, in February 1968 and January 1972,” Chris concludes.
Meanwhile, Phil Jolly has come to The Knowledge’s defence. “I don’t agree with the pedants. The units in the sequence can be the results, not the individual numbers of goals, so the Ipswich sequence is a valid palindrome.” We appreciate it, Phil.
The game’s gone (80s edition)
It pains me to act as VAR on Leicester City’s jubilations, but the game had gone before Alan Birchenall's half-time rant in the 1994 match against Cov.
— Jeremy Clay (@Ludicrousscenes) November 11, 2024
It had already vanished in 1986, when Eamon Dunphy wrote a rueful new introduction to a reissue of his book Only a Game? pic.twitter.com/zhJ5u9D5U7
Knowledge archive
“During the Stuttgart v Augsburg game in the Bundesliga, the home team wore a special kit to mark the 25th birthday of mascot Fritzle – with his face on the front. Can any other fans recall a mascot being given such special treatment?” asked Steve Joseph back in 2017.
Stuttgart’s alligator mascot emerged from a giant red and white egg on 22 August 1992, and the egg even featured in Stuttgart’s 1992-93 team photo. His anniversary was marked by a fairly uninspiring 0-0 draw, but he isn’t the first mascot to have featured prominently on a club’s shirt.
“Didn’t the mighty Jags, AKA Partick Thistle, have their LSD-trip-gone-wrong mascot on their shirt all of the 2015-16 season if not longer?” wonders Tim Maitland. They did indeed – who could forget Kingsley, the terrifying creation of David Shrigley?
And while we can’t really include mascots based on club crests (whether red devils, magpies or lions), a case could be made for Changy the Elephant. Everton’s former mascot was based on the logo of their shirt sponsors, Thai brewery Chang, but packed his trunk and left Goodison when that deal ended in 2017.
Can you help?
“Jack Harrison is in his second season on loan at Everton from Leeds. He also spent three seasons on loan at Leeds from Manchester City and had a spell at Middlesbrough. To date he has played 205 games on loan at various clubs of his total of 321 career games, meaning he has played 64% of his career playing on loan. Is this a record?” asks Rob Huggett.
“Who is the most prominent football manager of all time with no recorded playing experience before they went into coaching?” wonders Jack Hayward. “If they played youth or Sunday league football and never turned professional, they don’t count (looking at you, Thomas Frank).”
Stockport County followed up a midweek 5-0 home loss last week with a 5-0 home win at the weekend. Has any other team had successive league wins and losses of a higher score, netting out to a zero goal difference?
— Joel Mahoney (@JoelMahone86714) November 12, 2024
“Liverpool and Aston Villa are the only two Premier League teams whose names begin and end with the same letter (discounting Football Club and the like). In Scotland, three of 12 teams fit the criteria: Kilmarnock, Celtic and Dundee United,” notes Matthew Chapman. “Which league has had the most such teams at any time?”
“As of now, there are four points between Arsenal (fourth) and Manchester United (13th). Has there ever been a smaller points gap separating teams who are 10 league positions apart before, at least 10 games into the season?” asks Alistair Mendes-Hay.
@TheKnowledge_GU - one for you 😂 https://t.co/YUCy894fmE
— Matthew Hague (@Worsbroughtyke) November 12, 2024
“Manchester United have had four ex-players as manager or interim since 2014: Ryan Giggs, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Michael Carrick and Ruud van Nistelrooy. What’s the record?” asks Josh Potter.
“I was at Rochdale v Sutton United today and it was 24 minutes and 32 seconds before there was a free-kick awarded,” writes Niel Wood. “I’m not sure if such records exist but this feels like a long time. Anyone know any different?”
“This has to be a record for the biggest comeback in stoppage time, right?” asks Derek Robertson.
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