“Burnley’s 4-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Friday was the 12th consecutive Championship game in which they kept a clean sheet,” writes Graham Davidson. “Is this a record for a domestic men’s league?”
It’s now 1,090 minutes (plus added time, which is never included in such lists) since Burnley last conceded a league goal (Watford’s Kwadwo Baah scoring on 21 December). Since that match, which Burnley won 2-1, their record is eye-catching to say the least: P12 W6 D6 L0 F15 A0 Pts 24. We had a related question in 2009 when Manchester United and Edwin van der Sar were racking up clean sheets. That was for individual goalkeepers and, while James Trafford has been in goal throughout Burnley’s Fort Knox period, there are plenty of examples of teams putting together even longer runs in which they used more than one goalkeeper.
Let’s start on these shores with Reading goalkeeper Steve Death, who conceded his last goal of the 1978-79 season on 24 March. Death kept 11 straight clean sheets after that to help Reading win Division Four. Their run was ended by one of their own: Stewart Henderson scored an own goal against Brentford on the opening day of the 1979-80 season.
The most famous example in English football came in 2008-09, when Manchester United responded to defeat at the Emirates in November by keeping clean sheets in the next 14 league games. Van der Sar was in goal for the first 13 of those and eventually – with the help of a defence that included the magnificent pairing of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic – set a personal record of 1,311 minutes without conceding. The team record was a little higher – 1,334 minutes. Blackburn scored past Tomasz Kuszczak in the 32nd minute of their game against United in February; Van der Sar returned for the next game at Newcastle and was beaten in the ninth minute.
The European record is held by Club Brugge, whose keeper Dany Verlinden didn’t concede a goal for 1,390 minutes between March and September 1990. That streak was ended by a young Mechelen player called Philippe Albert.
There are at least three teams who can better that, although two of them achieved the feat in regional competitions in Brazil. Nautico kept 15 clean sheets in a row in the Campeonato Pernambucano, the regional competition in the north-east state of Pernambucoi, in 1974. All bar one was claimed by the keeper Hélio Miguel, known as Neneca. It’s generally reported that Neneca himself went either 1,636 or 1,726 minutes without conceding, but that might include games in other competitions or even friendlies; we can only find 15 full games in the Campeonato Pernambucano.
Vasco da Gama went even better in the Campeonato Carioca three years later. As with Nautico and Neneca, the available evidence online doesn’t quite tally with their keeper Mazarópi’s widely-cited record of 1,816 minutes without conceding. We were able to find 1,761 minutes in total – plus another 86 in a match against Bangu that was abandoned and replayed the following month. If you include the abandoned game (most records don’t as far as we can discern) they went more than 30 hours without conceding, including the entire second stage of the 1977 Carioca.
The most immovable object we could find in a national league was the Al-Ahly team of the mid-1970s. They went 1,606 minutes without conceding in the Egyptian Premier League across the 1975-76 and 1976-77 seasons. The majority of the clean sheets were kept by Thabet El-Batal, with Ekramy El-Shahat also in goal for a few games.
Here’s a non-comprehensive list of teams whose net went unsullied for more than 1,000 minutes in men’s league football:
1,761 minutes
Vasco da Gama Campeonato Carioca, May 1977–September 1978
Goalkeepers Mazarópi and Jair Bragança
1,606 mins
Al-Ahly Egyptian Premier League, March–October 1976
Goalkeepers Thabet El-Batal and Ekramy El-Shahat
1,507 mins
Nautico Campeonato Pernambucano, August–November 1974
Goalkeepers Neneca and Luis Fernando
1,390 mins
Club Brugge Belgian First Division, March–September 1990
Goalkeeper Dany Verlinden
1,352 mins
Universidad Católica Chilean Primera División, June–October 2005
Goalkeeper José María Buljubasich
1,334 mins
Manchester United Premier League, November 2008–February 2009
Goalkeepers Edwin van der Sar and Tomasz Kuszczak
1,275 mins
Atlético Madrid La Liga, November 1990–March 1991
Goalkeeper Abel Resino
1,256 mins
Celtic Scottish Premiership, November 2013–March 2014
Goalkeeper Fraser Forster
1,192 mins
FC Porto Primeira Divisão, September 1991-January 1992
Goalkeeper Vitor Baia
1,103 mins
Reading Division Four/Three, March 1978-August 1979
Goalkeeper Steve Death
1,103 mins
Al-Ahly Egyptian Premier League, March-December 1978
Goalkeeper Thabet El-Batal and Ekramy El-Shahat
1,096 mins
Rangers Scottish Premier Division, November 1986–January 1987
Goalkeeper Chris Woods
1,090 mins
Burnley Championship, December 2024–
Goalkeeper James Trafford
1,025 mins
Chelsea Premier League, December 2004–March 2005
Goalkeeper Petr Cech
As for the women’s game, last year we chronicled the exploits of Swedish fourth-tier side Ängelholm who went the entire 18-game regular season – 1,620 minutes – without conceding … but still finished second. They eventually let two in during the first round of the end-of-season playoffs … which they won 8-2.
A head for heights
“Who’s the shortest player to score a header in men’s senior football?” wonders Brandon Martin-Moore.
Let’s do this in reverse order on height. Robert Davies nominates Erhun Oztumer, a brilliant talent who played for a number of lower-league clubs in England with mixed success. Oztumer, who is 5ft 3in (1.6m), can be seen here scoring against Bradford for Walsall.
Next is a Portuguese schemer who played for Porto, Juventus, Monaco and Marseille. “Rui Barros (5ft 2.6in/1.59m) scored at least two headers in his time at Monaco,” writes Sebastien Aymeric. “One was against Sochaux in the league in 1990-91, the other against Roma in the second leg of a Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final the following season.”
Barros’s header was the only goal of a hard-fought quarter-final. Monaco, managed by Arsène Wenger, went all the way to the final but were beaten 2-0 by Werder Bremen.
Celtic legend Jimmy Johnstone (5ft 2in/1.57m) occasionally stopped terrorising full-backs to pop up in the penalty area and score with a header. Dirk Maas highlights two famous goals against Rangers in 1971 and 1973. Dirk also unearthed a headed goal from Polish winger Marcin Garuch, who stands at 5ft 0.5in or 1.54m. “Garuch scored a header for Miedź Legnica against Dolcan Zabki in the 2013-14 I liga, the second tier of Polish football,” writes Dirk.
We can safely assume Rafael Moreno Aranzadi (5ft 0.5in/1.54m) scored a few headers, given the trophy for the top scorer in La Liga each season is named in his honour. Yep, he’s the man who was and is known to all as Pichichi. There are no videos but this article says his only goal for Spain came from a header.
It’s worth pointing out that a few people think Pichichi was a lot taller than 1.54m, but that’s the measurement that is usually given.
Let’s hear it for the Boys
“Have BSC Young Boys ever played Newell’s Old Boys?” asks Andy Jones.
They haven’t … but there’s a but. “Young Boys did play against BSC Old Boys, from Basel, in the second round of the 2017-18 Swiss Cup,” mails Dirk Maas. “Young Boys won 4-0 and eventually lost to FC Zürich in the final. They also played against them in the early decades of the Swiss top flight, between 1901 and 1932.”
Knowledge archive
“Fulham are top of the Championship with a goal difference of +48”, noted Richard Hirst in 2022. “I am acutely conscious of their capacity to screw things up, however, so what is the best goal difference a team has had and not been promoted?”
“Huddersfield Town, 1980-81, Steve Kindon et al,” wrote Richard Askham. “Goals for: 71; against: 40 … +31. They finished fourth behind promoted trio Rotherham, Charlton and Barnsley. It would have been +32 had the ball not gone in off the referee deep into injury time at Hull. Promotion to the Premier League in 2016-17 with a goal difference of -2 more than made up for 1980-81, though.” Then again, teams had qualified for Europe before with negative goal differences … some had even won titles with them.
“Brentford finished third in the 2019-20 Championship with a goal difference of +42,” recalled John Curry. “They were not promoted. But in the old Third Division North, where only the winner was promoted to the Second Division, Stockport County finished runners-up in 1929-30 with a goal difference of +62.”
The National League also offered a few examples, including Wrexham (+52, 2011-12) and Luton (+44, 2009-10 and +48, 2010-11). Worst of all, Hereford finished second in 2003-04 with 91 points and a +59 goal difference, finishing a point behind champions Chester and losing to Aldershot in the playoffs.
Rough, but not as rough as in the Highland League. “Got two belters for you,” began Mick McMenemie. “Formartine United finished second in 2016 with a goal difference of +102 (32 better than the winners Cove Rangers), but only the champions got entry into the playoffs for a league place. The year before, Brora won the league with a goal difference of +121, but lost to Montrose in the playoff final. No promotion but at least they got a trophy. Formartine got nothing.”
Can you help?
“Arne Slot could win the Premier League and Champions League in his first season after taking over from Jürgen Klopp,” writes Hannah Mitchell. “What examples are there of managers who have had instant success after succeeding a legendary manager?”
“In last season’s Primeira Liga, Benfica’s average attendance of 56,248 was almost 29 times as high as Arouca’s 1,945. Is this the greatest difference in seasonal attendances between top division teams?” asks Cameron McGlone.
“There were seven away victories in the Premier League at the weekend, with Newcastle and Aston Villa the only home teams to win. Is this a record for a single gameweek?” wonders John Hudson.
“The recent Merseyside derby showed that it’s no longer unusual for a referee to book and send off players and managers after they’ve blown the final whistle,” notes Jason Janduy. “Are there any instances where they’ve shown their cards before the match?”
Mail us with your questions and answers
