“Do any fanbases regularly sing in praise of a player who never actually played for them?” tweets Andy Brook. “Possibly due to scoring a vital goal against a rival or something similar?”
The key phrase here is probably “in praise”. A number of you mentioned schadenfreude-fuelled chanting – Steven Gerrard’s slip, Patrick Vieira giving Ryan Giggs the ball, that kind of thing – but you could write a book on those and they aren’t really in the spirit of the question. So let’s focus on the positives.
Unless you’re a Hearts supporter. In May 1986, the Dundee striker Albert Kidd became a hero at two other clubs after a decisive intervention in the title race. “Kidd came off the bench to score two late goals against Hearts in the final league game of the season, thus handing the title to Celtic after the Jambos, unbeaten since September, had been two points ahead with a four-goal advantage and seemingly nailed on for the title,” writes David Forbes. “King Albert is revered by Hibs fans, was voted Hibs’ player of the season by some and, if memory serves correctly, there is, or was at one point, a Hibernian supporters’ club bearing his name. I still enjoy the memory, and I’m not even a Hibs fan.”
As you can imagine, Celtic fans are equally fond of Kidd.
Celtic fans celebrate Albert Kidd day for scoring a double against hearts on the last day of the 85/86 season to hand Celtic the title https://t.co/hSYlxJf6Bk
— Nicholas Moore (@NickyMoore89) August 16, 2022
But they were less enamoured with Scott McDonald, when his two goals on the final day of the 2004-05 season denied them the title. McDonald became a Rangers hero – and, later, a Celtic one when he joined the club and banged in 25 league goals to help win the title in his debut season.
Rangers fans used to sing "Scott McDonald scored two goals..." to tune of Old McDonald had a Farm in celebration of his double for Motherwell to beat Celtic and let Rangers snatch the league title in the final minutes of the 2004/5 season
— King Jobbie (@kingjobbie) August 17, 2022
McDonald would go on to sign for Celtic
Unsurprisingly, given the nature of the question, most of the answers relate to longstanding rivalries. “Bristol City fans still mark Sir Colin Daniel day,” begins Sam Coles, “to commemorate the Gas being relegated from the Football League in 2014 by a side wearing their own away shirt.”
Bristol City fans rename their new stand after Colin Daniel, the player who relegated rivals Bristol Rovers in May.. pic.twitter.com/4IfHzALKoa
— Football Away Days (@FBAwayDays) September 13, 2014
In the same year, QPR beat Derby in the Championship playoff final, and a City Ground hero was born. “Nottingham Forest supporters regularly sing the praises of Bobby Zamora,” tweets Chris Clarke. “Despite never playing for the Reds, Bobby will never have to pay for a drink in Nottingham as long as he lives, because he scored a late winner for QPR in the playoff final against hated local rivals Derby County.”
We can’t find any examples of fans regularly singing about players just because they admire them, such as Matthew Le Tissier when he was the darling of English football from 1993-95. But if you know of any such chants, send them in.
The longest perfect start to the season
“Olimpija Ljubljana began their league season with six consecutive wins, without conceding a goal,” writes Richard Wilson. “So far, I have found Chelsea (2005-06) and Dinamo Zagreb (2011-12), whose perfect streaks were both ended by a goal in the 44th minute of their seventh game. Has anyone ever won their first seven games (or more) without conceding once?”
First things first: let’s catch up with Olimpija Ljubljana. They made it seven wins out of seven by beating NK Radomlje at the weekend – but they missed out on a seventh consecutive clean sheet by conceding a 95th-minute penalty. Some people just have no respect for a decent Knowledge question. The final score was 2-1, which leaves Olimpija Ljubljana with a record of P7 W7 D0 L0 F12 A1 Pts 21.
To find an answer to Richard’s question, we have to go back to the heady autumn of 1995. “Ajax won their first nine matches of the 1995-96 Eredivisie season without conceding a goal,” writes Dirk Maas (and others). “At that stage they had 27 points and a goal difference of +33. Their arch rivals Feyenoord were the first to beat Edwin van der Sar, in round 10.”
Ajax came from 2-0 down to beat Feyenoord 4-2 in that match, and won their first 12 league games before being held to a draw by a Ronaldo-inspired PSV Eindhoven.
And thanks to Chris Roe for this note on domestic matters. “In the top four divisions in England, no team has done better than Chelsea’s streak in 2005-06,” he writes. “There are two instances of teams going longer without conceding at the start of the league season, but they didn’t win every game. Hereford managed seven matches, one of which was a goalless draw, in 1984-85. (They must have been saving all the conceded goals for the League Cup – during that run of clean sheets in the league, they lost 7-5 on aggregate to Oxford in the first round.) Portsmouth managed eight in 1922-23, but two of those of games finished 0-0.”
One-club national teams (2)
In last week’s Knowledge, we looked at national teams fielding an entire XI from the same club. But we forgot about a cracking little story from the end of the 20th century.
“You missed Bonner SC,” notes Marcello Barisonzi. “The team (based in the former capital of Germany, Bonn) in 1999 loaned 15 players from the Cuban national team, with the permission of Fidel Castro himself. The event was so weird that the Guardian reported it.
“How did they fare? The records show that at the end of the 1999-2000 season, Bonner SC were relegated to the fifth tier of the German football pyramid.”
Knowledge archive
“Following the recent scandal in Italy, I got to wondering what the earliest ever example of match-fixing is?” wrote Seamus Callaghan in 2006.
It’s a whopping 106 years ago [now 122 years ago – Knowledge Ed] and involves Burnley goalkeeper “Happy” Jack Hillman. With his team needing to beat Nottingham Forest to avoid relegation, Hillman was alleged to have offered the opposition £2 a head to “take it easy” [around £273 in 2022, according to the retail price index]. He upped his offer to £5 [£683] at half-time, by which point Burnley were trailing 2-0.
The Clarets eventually lost 4-0 and went down to the second division before being hauled before the Football League. Hillman admitted speaking to Forest players, but denied trying to bribe them. Which didn’t wash with the authorities, who chose to set an example by banning him from the game for one year.
Can you help?
“When Bobby Clark came on for Liverpool last weekend it meant that James Milner has played alongside a father (Lee Clark at Newcastle) and son (Bobby). How many other players have played alongside a parent and child in their career?” asks Gregg Bakowski. “I’m guessing some Iceland players will get the ball rolling.”
Surely one for at @TheKnowledge_GU. Looks like Yann Sommer made 19 saves in the match against Bayern today. That’s got to be a record!?! pic.twitter.com/JWvRBw1HEU
— KVB (@KevVanBet) August 27, 2022
“Preston have played six Championship games this season: five 0-0 draws and a 1-0 win. Have there ever been a lower number of goals (for and against) after six games?” asks Ross Adam.
For next week, ManUtd finished with 3 European cup winners from the same team, Madrid, today. What’s the record for rebuilding another clubs cup/league winning side elsewhere? McArthur and McCarthy at Palace for example, or Drinkwater and Kante at Chelsea.
— Ghost Panther 2: Ghoster, Pantherer. (@MackechnieNiall) August 27, 2022
“What is the first reference to a football club pulling off ‘the great escape’ by avoiding relegation from a seemingly doomed position?” asks Ralph Burns. “Presumably this expression was used for the first time after the film of the same name was released in June 1963.”
During the Red Star v Maccabi Haifa match, Milan Pavkov entered the pitch in the 78th minute and scored an own goal in the 90th minute. Surely we've seen a more catastrophic substitution before?
— テモテ (@Terunoumi89) August 30, 2022
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
