September 1993, SK Brann drew 0-0 against IK Start,” begins Tor Henrik von der Ohe. “The next time SK Brann drew 0-0 in a league game was 1 June 1997 against SFK Lyn; in almost four years they played 89 league games where at least one of the teams scored. Is this a record in the top league of any country?” Trust somebody called ‘Tor’ to ask about goalless draws. While SK Brann’s crowd-pleasing antics are undeniably impressive, they never had a chance of the record. Football was not always as defensively minded as it has been in the last 40 or 50 years. In the days when 2-3-5 was considered a cautious formation, 0-0s were unsurprisingly scarce - as James Clarke confirms with the definitive answer to Tor’s question. “There are three notable
Frank Robinson Womens Jersey streaks in English football of teams avoiding 0-0 draws which make the 89-game run of SK Brann look pretty pathetic really,” begins James. “In fact, considering all tiers of English football, there are 69 different English (or occasionally Welsh) clubs that have matched or bettered SK Brann’s run (not counting cup games, friendlies or games in tiers outside the Football League). This includes 17 of the teams who played in the 2016-17 Premier League, with the only exceptions being Tottenham (maximum 78-game streak), Bournemouth (86 games) and, of course, boring boring Arsenal (82 games). Have any football teams won the league with a negative goal difference? Read more “In English terms at least, ‘Everton’ is the answer to Tor’s question. They went 206 games without a goalless draw from 15 December 1888 (0-0 away at Stoke) to 31 October 1896 (0-0 at home to Wolves), all of which were in the top flight. Bolton also deserve an honourable mention. They were a founder member of the league in 1888, and Bolton fans did not have to sit through a single goalless match for the entirety of the first seven seasons of English football. They even made it past Christmas in the eighth season, until 11 January 1896 (away at Nottingham Forest). That’s 203 games in total.” There’s more: “If you dare to extend to the world below the top flight then Lincoln City hold the record, with a run of 236 consecutive league games without a goalless draw. All of these were in the second tier of English football, going from 26 August 1953 (0-0 at home to Bury) up until 21 February 1959 (0-0 away at Leyton Orient).” Normally we’d put an ‘any more for any more’ question here, but we’re pretty confident James has it covered. Players with the same name in the same team (II) In last week’s Knowledge we looked at players with exactly the same names playing in the same team. Most of the examples of this rare occurrence
David Wright Youth Jersey were from the modern era but Marie Grierson plucked a wonderful addition from the archives. “Reading your recent column, I want to talk about the two Ken Smiths of Gateshead United, who played in the 1958-59 season when the team was in Division Four. To separate them, the Football League called them Ken Smith 1 and Ken Smith 2. So far, so good – except that, during a 4-1 win against Carlisle, Ken Smith 1 scored twice and Ken Smith 2 scored once, so the scoreboard read Ken Smith 1 (2), Ken Smith 2 (1).” The Recap: sign up for the best of the Guardian's sport coverage Read more And Daniel Avery has this Highlander-esque gem from Griffin Park in the mid-noughties. “As a Brentford fan, I can help with this. We had two Scott Fitzgeralds who were distinguished by their middle names during the 2004-05 League One season. Interestingly, it appears they never played together on the same team but both made several appearances that season. The older of the two, Scott B Fitzgerald became manager of the Bees in November 2006, released Scott P Fitzgerald by mutual consent on 15 January 2007 and was sacked because of relegation to League Two in May 2007.” “Cheltenham Town had an unusual situation about 10 years ago,” writes Danny Jamieson. “They signed a back-up goalkeeper from Bristol City called Scott Brown, and then in 2007 tried to confuse everyone by picking up midfielder Scott Brown initially on loan, before signing him permanently – also from Bristol City. To make things even worse, I seem to remember one of the first team coaches who welcomed them to the club also happened to be called Scott Brown, making three of them at the club
http://www.officialmetsproshop.com/Dwight_Gooden_Jersey at one time. The two playing Scott Browns happened to have been born within two weeks of each other too: goalkeeper Scott Brown was born on 26 April 1985, while midfielder Scott Brown was born on 8 May 1985.” Ben McNamee has another good one: “There was a nice instance of this in 1897 when Manchester City signed two players who were both called William Smith. To differentiate them, supporters began referring to them by the club they had signed from, so they became known as Buxton Smith and Stockport Smith. There’s a team photo here from 1898 which identifies them as B. Smith and S. Smith.” Finally, there are some other examples that a few of you pointed out: England’s squad for the 1986 World Cup had two Gary Stevens, which led to John Motson describing them as “Gary Stevens of Tottenham” and “Gary Stevens of Everton” when they were both on the field against Paraguay in the second round. Wolves have two goalkeepers on their books called John Ruddy. The Fulham curiosities: John Collins and Collins John, and Mousa Dembélé and Moussa Dembélé. Neither pair quite overlapped at the club, however. Goalscoring records held by goalkeepers Advertisement “I was looking through the records for my club, Sheffield Wednesday, and I noticed that the record for oldest goalscorer is held by goalie Mark Crossley, who scored an injury-time header when we drew 3-3 with Southampton in 2006. How many other clubs have a goalscoring record held by their goalkeeper?” asked Andrew Worton. Nathan Eaton takes us back to a blustery St Mary’s some years ago. “My club, Stoke City, doesn’t just have a club record held by a goalkeeper, but a world goalscoring record. When Asmir Begovic scored the opening goal against Southampton in a 1-1 draw in November 2013, his wind-assisted 97.5-yard strike became the longest distance goal ever recorded in the professional game, earning him an official Guinness
Derek Norris Womens Jersey World Record.” Tom Unwin got in touch to remind us about a Premier League legend’s feat at Goodison Park. “My thoughts turned instantly to my beloved Aston Villa. In October 2001, a 37-year-old Peter Schmeichel scored for Villa away at Everton, though unfortunately his goal wasn’t as dramatic as Mark Crossley’s, this effort being a last-minute consolation in a 3-2 defeat which I believe makes him the oldest Aston Villa goalscorer. From further research, this goal broke another record: Schmeichel was also first goalkeeper to score a goal in the Premier League
