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“In the 1975 FA Cup, I was surprised that in that season’s quarter-final, Ipswich and Leeds took four games to decide their tie, with a total crowd of 143,000. My question is: what is the tie with the highest total? attendance?” asks Nicolas Idoin.
“As the FA recently bowed to the Premier League and replays will be a thing of the past, I was intrigued by the matter and consulted 11v 11.com and We march together websites to find an answer,” begins Michael Haughey. “The quoted match between Ipswich and Leeds (142,849) has been seen by fewer people in four games since 154,201 which saw the three games needed to settle Leeds v Sunderland in 1967. This included a record replay crowd at Elland Road.
“Apart from the FA Cup finals of 1981, 1982 and 1983, which were replayed, I immersed myself in the cup’s festive feast of multiple replays. The marathon semi-final between Arsenal and Liverpool in 1980 ended in four legs, on aggregate 169,083 audience. last season, 143,996 watched Arsenal v Sheffield Wednesday over five games, including three games at neutral Philbert Street. But Arsenal take the biscuit with 183,197 which saw them knocked out in the third round in 1947 by Chelsea after three games with a second replay at White Hart Lane. All in the days when reruns started on Wednesday afternoons.
“Surprisingly in the much maligned League Cup, 171,334 I watched both legs and two replays of the semi-final between West Ham and Stoke City in 1972.’
Tim in New York widens the net to offer “the 1998 World Cup qualifier between Iran and Australia, which ended in a draw 190,000 over two legs (100,000 in Tehran, 90,000 in Melbourne)’. And if we take the matter to Scotland, Vincent Connolly may surpass even that. “Celtic and Rangers drew 1-1 in the 1971 Scottish Cup Final in front of 120,092, then Celtic won the replay 2-1 where the crowd was 103,332. Total 223,424. Surely it must be close to a winner?’
Even looking at replays of the FA Cup final at Wembley, we can’t beat that total, Vincent. The repeat Manchester United v Brighton 1983 Final led attendance to 190,593 but the previous year the official Wembley crowd for Tottenham v QPR was recorded as 100,000 for both the final and the replay, so 200,000 all in. Did not beat Celtic-Rangers in 1971.
Second-tier strongmen who never made it to the top
“Who has made the most Championship appearances without ever playing a top-flight game?” Michael Bond wonders.
Dan Seppings did the heavy lifting on this one for us. “I took the Championship as second tier because football wasn’t invented in 1992, etc. etc. Anyway, here are the results:
Tony Ford 506 second-tier appearances out of a total of 931
Dele Adebola 489 of 639
Wayne Allison 482 of 752
Mike Kipping 470 of 470
Paul McKenna 469 of 554
Simon Garner 464 of 594
Richard Keough 457 of 626
Don Goodman 456 of 515
Luke Chambers 455 of 791
Tom Lees 454 of 538
Matt Bell 453 of 478
David Holdsworth 445 of 445
Barry Kitchener 444 of 523
Paul Groves 442 of 627
Keith Peacock 434 of 533
“Some of these players deserve to disappear down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. Tony Ford has more Football League appearances (931) than any outfield player. sometime! Dele Adebola was selected for both the Northern Ireland and Nigeria national teams without being lucky enough to get a cap. Keith Peacock was the first official substitute in the Football League… and he was Gavin Peacock’s father. Fred Kipping was a future Real Madrid manager and his father was a medalist at the first modern Olympics in 1896. David Holdsworth became the first man to manage a league match against his own twin, Dean. Anyway, proof that lower league football is miles more interesting than this top flight.’
Top scorer in division for longest streak
“What is the longest streak of a player being top scorer in the same division?” Aaron asks. “Has anyone managed more than 12 consecutive seasons?”
Dirk Maas loves a challenge. “This question is almost impossible to answer, but thanks to RSSSFI think it’s Pele who became top scorer in the Campeonato Paulista, the top professional state football league in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, nine times in a row between 1957 and 1965.’
“The only other player who can match Pele’s feat of nine consecutive top-scoring titles is Josef Bikan. Between the 1937-38 and 1946-47 seasons (in 1944-45 Bikan did not play league football as there was no championship due to the Second World War), he became top scorer in every top division, Czechoslovakia and Bohemian-Moravian, in which he plays. But due to the political upheavals of the 1930s and 1940s, these leagues were not always Czechoslovakian.’
“Last week you reported on a player who had won 14 consecutive Gibraltar League titles,” writes Dave Mellinger. “In my email to you last week, I omitted the fact that this was equal in a slightly more famous league: Wendy Renard played for Lyon throughout her professional career, including their run of 14 consecutive Women’s Division 1 titles from 2006- 07 to 2019-20.”
Archive of knowledge
“Recently I watched the third Test between India and the West Indies,” wrote Manas Phadke in July 2011. “I was quite surprised to see Billy Doctrow (who is the referee) sitting in a stand named after him, wearing a Liverpool shirt and kissing the badge in front of the cameras. Are there any other umpires in international cricket (present or past) who have publicly pledged allegiance to a football club?’
Roy Proctor was on hand with some answers. “The most obvious cricket referee to have a publicly recognized football affiliation is the incomparable Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird, who in a Guardian article in 2008 declared: ‘I’ve supported Barnsley for 70 years, so there’s no way I’m going to I miss this afternoon. The afternoon in question was an FA Cup quarter-final between Tykes and Chelsea, a match which Barnsley won. “Another, more current referee is Ian Gould, a goalkeeper who played in goal for Slough Town and Arsenal, earning him the nickname ‘The Gunner.’ In July 2009, Gould became chairman of FC Burnham of the Southern Football League. And although I’m not sure which team he supports, legendary West Indian umpire Steve Buckner, like Gould, was a goalkeeper, playing for Jamaica at schoolboy level. He went on to referee and take charge of World Cup qualifiers.
Can you help?
“Is there a league in the world where the same player holds the record for both the youngest and oldest goalscorer?” asks Harry Dawson.
If Leeds beat Ipswich for promotion and Southampton then win the play-offs, there is a chance all three relegated clubs could replace the three promoted to the Prem last season. Has this happened before?
— Steve Pye (@1980sSportsBlog) April 30, 2024
“All the teams that reached and lost in the League One play-offs last season (Peterborough, Bolton and Barnsley) reached them again this year. Has this ever happened before?” ponders Tom Davies.
Bradford City made a double substitution in the 83rd minute before replacing both players in the 90th minute in their last game against Barrow. Has there ever been a shorter double shift period that was subsequently replaced?
— B (@BcfcBrad1903) April 30, 2024
“Given that we are at the end of the season on a bit of a managerial merry-go-round… at a low, organized (some would say disorganized) level, five- and six-a-side teams often just sort themselves out,” writes Stuart Goodwin. “A lot of regular kicks happen where it’s 11 on 11 and nobody is particularly responsible – not even the captain of each side.” Since the era of William Sudell and George Ramsey in the late 1800s, which led to what we now know as club managers, have there been any notable examples at professional or semi-professional level where the team had no managerial presence on the sidelines or as a player-manager? Since managers became the norm, what is the highest level at which such a team has appeared, and what is the highest level at which two such teams have met?’
Newcastle beat Sheffield United 13-1 on aggregate this season. Has there been a bigger margin before?
— Craig (@Craig_SAFC) April 30, 2024
“Huddersfield Town have just gone a whole season without conceding a single home penalty,” writes Roger Pashby. “This is it now three consecutive full seasons. You can even participate in cup games! The last home penalty was awarded against Cardiff on 5 March 2021 and missed by Yaya Sanogo. This was during the Covid pandemic so the ground was closed at the time. You have to go back to 25 February 2020 and Carlan Grant’s penalty against Bristol City for the last time any paying customer saw Town take a penalty at home. Surely no professional club can match these appalling statistics.”
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