“Borrowed from the excellent http://twtd.co.uk, Ipswich’s nine results so far this season form a mirror image/palindrome (0-2, 1-4, 2-2, 1-1, 0-0, 1-1, 2-2, 1-4, 0-2 seeing as you ask). Longer/longest streaks please!” tweets Nigel Smith.
Ipswich’s palindrome went pop when they lost 4-3 to Brentford at the weekend, unless they have an even longer one in mind and are going to lose 4-3 to Leicester on Saturday. The nine-match streak they inadvertently put together isn’t quite a record for the top four divisions in England. We know this because of Chris Roe’s Magic Database™.
First up, Torquay United, who had a 10-game sequence in March and April 2014: 2-1, 0-1, 2-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 2-1, 0-1, 2-1. Torquay broke the sequence by winning 3-1 at Mansfield (the Palindrome Pools Panel had them losing 1-0) in their penultimate League Two game of the season. But it was a futile victory: results elsewhere meant they were relegated to the Conference. They haven’t been a Football League team since.
Portsmouth are top of this very, very, very niche list with an 11-game sequence during the 1975-76 Division Two season: 0-1, 0-2, 1-3, 1-0, 0-1, 3-1, 0-1, 1-0, 1-3, 0-2, 0-1. Unsurprisingly this symmetry wasn’t headline news, overshadowed as it was by the fact eight of the 11 games were defeats. Like Torquay, Portsmouth finished bottom of the table come May. When you consider Ipswich’s current predicament, maybe palindromic results aren’t a good idea.
Pitch battles, part two
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at clubs who deliberately changed pitch conditions to maximise home advantage. There’s more, most of it involving deliberate waterlogging. Welcome to the world of shitH₂Ousery.
Many of you mentioned the famous friendly between Wolves and Honved in 1954, when Wolves won 3-2 and were proclaimed “champions of the world” by the Daily Mail. Honved, whose side included six of the Hungarian team that had humiliated England at Wembley a year earlier, were 2-0 up and in control at half-time. At this point the Wolves manager, Stan Cullis, instructed a number of apprentices (including a young Ron Atkinson) to water an already rain-sodden pitch.
Cullis wanted the pitch to be “nice and heavy” to stymie Honved’s passing game. “Honved slowly but surely began to get bogged down in the increasing mud and Wolves with their characteristic long-ball style gradually began to grind down the Hungarians,” said Atkinson years later. “There is no doubt in my mind that, had Cullis not ordered me and my mates to water the pitch, Honved would have won by about 10-0.” You can read more in this piece from the archive.
Brian Clough wanted his teams to play like Honved – no grass in the sky and all that – but he wasn’t averse to an occasional bit of pragmatism. When Derby were drawn against Benfica in the 1972-73 European Cup, Clough ensured the first leg was played on a Baseball Ground bog. “A team stuffed with famous Portuguese internationals, including the legendary Eusebio, skidded and floundered in the mud and soot from Leys foundry next door and the Rams won 3-0,” remembers Paul Whitehead.
Paul’s memory is that Clough had the groundsman do the deed, but we really, really want this email from Andrew Carter to be true. “Brian Clough turned the hosepipes on to the pitch then accidentally fell asleep, awaking to find the pitch resembling a bog,” writes Andrew.
“After Derby had won 3-0, the then head of Uefa, Sir Stanley Rous, asked Clough how it was that so much rain had fallen in Derby, when none had fallen in the vicinity of his nearby hotel. Clough explained it was a feature of the Derbyshire weather that when some areas received torrential downpours, it wasn’t unusual for surrounding locations to escape the rain altogether.” Derby reached the semi-finals of the European Cup that season before losing to Juventus, but that’s another story.
A couple more before we move on. Neil Johnston reminds us that Southampton installed triangular blocks on the touchline to stop West Brom utilising long throws during last season’s playoff semi-final. But it’s only fitting that we end with John Beck, whose soggy antics at Cambridge kicked off last week’s answer.
“When he arrived at my club, Preston, he couldn’t grow the grass long in the corner of the pitches due to North End having a plastic pitch,” begins Mark Cassidy. “Undeterred, John instructed the ground staff to dump sand in each corner to slow the ball up. He also amended our home kit, by gaining the Football League’s consent for the players to wear blue tracksuit bottoms instead of shorts, so as to encourage them to slide-tackle on the abrasive surface.”
Loaned-in captains
“While on loan at Peterborough from Rotherham last season, Peter Kioso was made club captain,” mails Cameron McGlone. “Is this a common occurrence? What other examples are there of players being made captain (permanently, not just for a game) while on loan?”
When the centre-back James McPake joined Hibernian on loan from Coventry in 2011-12, he was made captain for his debut against Rangers. Can you possibly guess what happened next? Yep, McPake was sent off after receiving two yellow cards. Maybe it was a tribute to Graeme Souness, who was famously sent off on his debut as Rangers player-manager when he nobbled the wrong Hibs mullet. McPake kept the armband when he returned from suspension and joined Hibs on a permanent deal in the summer.
@TheKnowledge_GU To answer Cameron McGlone's question, Sead Kolašinac was the Schalke captain while on loan from Arsenal and Matteo Pessina was announced as the Monza captain when he rejoined them on loan from Atalanta (Pessina later permanently signed for Monza)
— Djprasadian (@djprasadian) October 23, 2024
These players also captained their teams while on loan. As far we’re aware, none of them were sent off on debut.
Heurelho Gomes (Hoffenheim on loan from Spurs, 2012-13)
Marco van Ginkel (PSV Eindhoven on loan from Chelsea, 2017-18)
Liam Bridcutt (Lincoln on loan from Leeds, 2019-20)
Knowledge archive
“While procrastinating this morning, I came across Ivorian striker Serge Djiéhoua,” wrote Christopher Harding in 2016. “This itinerant big man up front appears to be among the frontrunners for fastest-ever sending off, after just seven seconds on the pitch. Not only that, but those seven seconds seem to be the only seconds he ever played for his club at the time, Glyfada. Has there ever been a shorter on-field career with any given club? Obviously only counting players who have in fact made an appearance.”
We’ve tackled the fastest red cards in football, plus the fastest debut sendings off, so it’s well worth us getting on to this. “In the Arsenal v Manchester United game from 22 August 1999,” writes Tom Solan of one of the first matches the Guardian ever did with minute-by-minute commentary, “Raimond van der Gouw got injured right at the end of injury time when he was kneed in the face by Martin Keown. After a long delay while he was treated by the physios (where the Sky Sports clock reached more than 100 minutes) the Dutchman was replaced by Nick Culkin for his United debut.
“As soon as Culkin took the resulting free-kick, the referee blew the full-time whistle, meaning the young goalkeeper’s debut was over after little more than a second. He never played for United again.” You can see Culkin’s Manchester United career here. Culkin went on to play for QPR, Radcliffe Borough, Prescot Cables and FC United of Manchester.
Can you help?
“England Under-21 winger and Bologna player Samuel Iling-Junior received rapturous applause from the home crowd, when he came on as a substitute at Villa Park last week” writes Ian Clover. “Why? Because he’s a Villa player, and this was his first appearance at Villa Park – albeit playing against his parent club. Has this ever happened before?”
During an excellent tour of @crewealexfc's Mornflake Stadium yesterday, I was stunned to be shown the (now disused) stadium prison cell for overexcited fans. Do any other stadia still have cells once used for this purpose? @TheKnowledge_GU
— Daniel Hill (@hilldaniel) October 27, 2024
“Zé Carlos, who earned his sole cap for Brazil in the World Cup 1998 semi-final against the Netherlands, has died aged just 56. Have any other players earned their only cap in such a high-profile match?” wonders Ian Williams.
@TheKnowledge_GU As the Vancouver Whitecaps are to face LAFC in the MLS Playoffs this weekend it will be their TENTH fixture against each other in the last 569 days over 4 competitions. Are there any other teams to have faced each other with more frequency over 18-24 months over…
— fictional (@fictional) October 25, 2024
“Kevin Muscat, Harry Kewell and Mile Jedinak have all been assistant coaches under Ange Postecoglou – they’ve also all captained Australia,” notes Jack Hayward. “Which manager has hired the most former national team captain as backroom staff?”
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU
