“Middlesbrough and Hartlepool have met only twice competitively, yet are 15 miles apart by road. Are there any lesser-spotted derbies involving two teams who are so close geographically?” asks Adrian Burns.
Middlesbrough and Hartlepool played each other in a two-legged Littlewoods (née League) Cup tie in 1986-87. A 1-1 draw at Victoria Park was followed by a 2-0 win for Boro at Ayresome Park, a match that included a cracking goal from future England winger and qualified solicitor Stuart Ripley. (Ten days earlier, Boro had played their first league game at Hartlepool’s ground due to Ayresome Park being padlocked, but that’s another story.) With Boro spending almost all of their life in tiers one and two of English football, and Hartlepool doing likewise in tiers three and four, they have never met in the league.
The distance between Victoria Park and Boro’s new stadium, the Riverside, is about 15 miles by road and just under eight as the crow flies. With help from our geographically savvy readership, we’ve put together a list of some of English football’s lesser-spotted derbies. (We didn’t limit the question to English football, but those were the only answers we received.) There are two entirely arbitrary qualifiers: teams must be within 20 miles of one another, as the crow flies, and must have played no more than 10 official games. Here’s the list, in descending order of proximity.
Stevenage v Watford (approx 19 miles apart, 1 competitive meeting) “They met in the League Cup in August 2014, when Lloyd Dyer scored the only goal for Watford,” writes Andrew Johnston. “They play each other in pre-season friendlies all the time though.”
Manchester United v Rochdale (12 miles, 2 meetings) Both games were in cups, obviously: a 2-0 win for United in the FA Cup in 1985-86 (worth watching this clip just for the slapstick opening goal), and victory on penalties in the Carabao Cup in 2019-20. That was the game in which the 16-year-old Luke Matheson, now of Wolves, scored a memorable equaliser after Mason Greenwood had given United the lead.
Manchester City v Rochdale (10 miles, 1 meeting) “It surprised me that they have met only once considering City have played in the third tier,” says Derrick Cameron. That game was a 4-0 League Cup win for City in September 1972, in which Rodney Marsh scored twice.
Barnet v Tottenham (10 miles, 0 meetings) “Not sure this is the north London derby most people have in mind,” adds Derrick Cameron, “but then it apparently hasn’t happened yet.”
Middlesbrough v Hartlepool (8 miles, 2 meetings) See above.
Blackburn Rovers v Accrington Stanley (5 miles, 3 meetings)
@TheKnowledge_GU Blackburn Rovers and Accrington Stanley's grounds are less than 5.5 miles apart as the crow flies, but they've only played each three times in the FA Cup, and never in the league (although plenty of pre-season friendlies)
— Dylan Mitchell (@build_a_fire) March 8, 2023
Everton v Tranmere (5 miles, 4 meetings) Everton won all three cup meetings in the 1960s but were then hammered 3-0 at Goodison Park in 2001, part of Tranmere’s famous FA Cup run.
In the next round Tranmere came from 3-0 down to beat Premier League Southampton 4-3, before finally losing 4-2 to Liverpool in the quarter-finals. Talking of which …
Liverpool v Tranmere (5 miles, 4 meetings) That FA Cup tie in 2001 was the most recent of four competitive games between the sides. Both Liverpool and Everton played Tranmere multiple times during the second world war, but those games are rarely included in official statistics.
Portsmouth v Gosport Borough (4 miles, 0 meetings) “Despite regularly playing each other in pre-season friendlies, Portsmouth and Gosport have never faced off competitively,” says Will in Malmö. “Gosport is a quick ferry ride across the harbour from Portsmouth and the stadiums are only a few miles apart.” Gosport have never been in the Football League and have only once reached the first round of the FA Cup, which limits the scope for meetings between these two neighbours.
Manchester United v Salford City (4 miles, 0 meetings) Just imagine all that hot air when they do meet, though.
And Man United and Salford City are even closer than that and have never played each other competitively
— Dylan Mitchell (@build_a_fire) March 8, 2023
Newcastle United v Gateshead (2 miles, 0 meetings) “While Gateshead are in the National League, they were members of the Football League for 30 years until 1961 but never played higher than the Third Division North/Fourth Division,” writes Deryck. “Newcastle have never played lower than the Second Division. The two clubs have played several pre-seaon friendlies over the years, the latest of which was on 9 July 2022 at St James’s Park. The Toon beat the Heed 5-1.”
And finally, there are a number of clubs who are close to one another but tend not to meet competitively – mainly because they’re in different countries.
Earliest and latest goals in the same game
“With Bournemouth scoring against Arsenal after nine seconds last weekend, and Arsenal scoring the winning goal in the 97th minute, is this the biggest gap between the first and last goals being scored in a match?” tweets Jimmy Clark. “Obviously excluding matches involving extra time.”
Bill Edgar of the Times posted an answer to this on Twitter, in response to a similar question from Football Weekly regular Philippe Auclair.
Hi Philippe – hope you are well. Ignoring 1st-half stoppage times, the biggest known gap (exact times available from 2006-07) was in Nov 2011, between Wigan 0, Blackburn 1 (Yakubu 1min, 3sec) and Wigan 3, Blackburn 3 (also Yakubu 98min, 14sec)
— Bill Edgar (@BillEdgarTimes) March 6, 2023
The Yakubu gap – 97 minutes 11 seconds – was 23 seconds longer than at the Emirates. But, as Bill points out, this doesn’t include added time in the first half, because that isn’t always recorded.
A quick search suggests there were between one and two minutes of first-half added time in the Wigan game 12 years ago, as compared to between three and four when Arsenal met Bournemouth. So in real terms – though not in the official statistics – the gap between Billing’s and Nelson’s goals is almost certainly a Premier League record.
If you have a better example from a different competition, drop us a line.
Managers at the double
“Alex Neil’s Stoke won 5-1 at Sunderland last weekend. Earlier in the season, Alex Neil’s Sunderland won 1-0 at Stoke. Has a manager ever ‘done the double’ in this way before?” wonders Phil Boyle.
If the Knowledge ran on the stock exchange, we’d be buying shares in Paul Lambert, Norwich and Colchester, because this answer pops up with comforting regularity.
“In August 2009, Paul Lambert famously managed Colchester to a 7-1 victory away to their big rivals Norwich,” writes Ben Wessely (and others). “After the game, Norwich sacked Bryan Gunn and replaced him with … Paul Lambert. Later in the season, Lambert’s Norwich beat Colchester 5-0, meaning he won the fixture 12-1 on aggregate.”
Bosses’ swift reunions
“Jim Goodwin has taken over at Dundee United,” notes David King. “His first game was against Aberdeen, the club who sacked him on 28 January. Have any other managers faced clubs who sacked them in their first game, and has anyone done it in fewer than 35 days?”
You betcha. “Grant McCann was sacked by Hull City on 25 January last year,” writes Rob Kaye. “He was then appointed by Peterborough on 24 February. Two days later, in his first game in charge, Peterborough lost 3-0 to Hull City. That’s 32 days from sacking to defeat by his old club.”
Awards for caretakers
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at caretakers who had won the manager of the month award in the Premier League. There’s another, more recent example from the WSL that is also worthy of mention.
“While Emma Hayes was recovering from an emergency hysterectomy earlier in the season, her assistant Denise Reddy stepped up,” writes Dave Newsome, “and they jointly won manager of the month for November.”
Love this - Denise Reddy, Emma Hayes and Paul Green posing together with the Manager of the Month award that has been awarded jointly to Reddy and Hayes.
— Ameé Ruszkai (@ameeruszkai) December 8, 2022
The way Chelsea's entire staff came together to manage the team while Hayes recovered deserves credit. pic.twitter.com/5RqQIP0FGl
Can you help?
“I have a vague memory of a playoff final where (in the pre-Wembley days) the teams were level after the two legs and they had a penalty shoot-out to decide who would host a third match,” writes Chris Heath. “I think the teams were Bristol City & Walsall. Are there any other examples of teams having a penalty shootout for reasons other than deciding the winner of a game?”
Getting sacked from two different jobs in two different countries in the same season surely can't have been done that often? One for @TheKnowledge_GU https://t.co/mvfkkX4Nzd
— Alex (@alexdunnesf) March 8, 2023
“Has any club ever fielded a starting XI with players representing each of the six inhabited continents of the world?” wonders Richard Gardner.
At the Marine v Guiseley game on Saturday, Machado started the game for Guiseley, was replaced by Rowe, who was replaced by Whitham, who was replaced by Cassidy.
— Thehaçiendamustberebuilt (@rebuildTheHac) March 13, 2023
10 of the starting 11 finished the match, but the maximum three permitted substitutions were made. Is this a record ?
“Lincoln have already drawn 13 of their 17 home games,” notes Huw Davies. “What’s the record for draws at home (or away) in a league season?”
@TheKnowledge_GU I learnt this week that baseball has a mercy rule, where a game is shortened if one team is leading by 10 runs. Despite some extremely one sided scores in football history, has anything similar ever happened in a (professional) football match?
— Harvey Mayne 💙 #Staysafe #Bleibgesund (@HarveyMayne) March 12, 2023
“All four FA Vase quarter-finals on Saturday ended in penalty shootouts. Has such a thing ever happened before in a national competition?” asks Graham Brack.
@TheKnowledge_GU look at this incredible record from Swedish team IF Brommapojkarna (quite a mouthful!) since 2014. Has any team shuttled between three divisions in such a manner before? pic.twitter.com/mgdcKtaNAz
— Ben Chia (@BenChiaCars) March 12, 2023
“During Arsenal’s 3-0 victory at Craven Cottage, their goalscorers had a very pleasing order – Gabriel, Martinelli, Odegaard,” notes Ned Aspray. “Have there been other (hopefully even more accurate) games where each goalscorer’s name flows into the next, eg Owen, Hargreaves or something better?”
@TheKnowledge_GU Sheffield Wednesday already
— Zxcvbnm (@qaxplm098) March 11, 2023
have 21 clean sheets, with 12 games still to play in League One. What team in England has had the most clean sheets in one season?
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
