“Karlan Grant is currently Huddersfield’s top scorer on the rather paltry total of four. What is the lowest top scorer ever, based on, say, league goals in a minimum 38-game season?” asks Ross Flockhart.
Robin Horton recalls a particularly painful period watching his beloved Blues. “Birmingham City’s nightmarish 1988-89 season saw joint-top scorers: Steve Whitton, who left just before deadline day, and Colin Robinson, scored an almighty five league goals apiece.”
Granada’s hopeless 2016-17 season in La Liga, which saw Tony Adams stop by to oversee relegation, had a similarly low-scoring duo of top scorers in Mehdi Carcela and Artem Kravets, with five apiece, but it would be remiss of us not to have a quick scan at Derby County in their infamous 2007-08 campaign. Kenny Miller topped the charts for the record-breaking Rams (they were relegated on 11 points) with just four. Derby scored only 20 goals all season, 11 behind the league’s top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo.
“The question brought back unpleasant memories for me of Sunderland’s ghastly 2005-06 season,” writes Chris Charlton-Mathews, “which for a couple of years held the record for lowest-ever top-flight points tally (thanks Derby!). I vaguely recalled basically no one scoring many for us that season, and a quick search confirmed that our top scorers, Liam Lawrence, Anthony Le Tallec, Tommy Miller and Dean Whitehead, notched a paltry three (three!) league goals each. That will, I imagine, take some beating. Weirdly, I actually enjoyed that season more than either 2016-17 or 2017-18, as it was clear that our bunch of hopelessly limited players were trying their best but were just horribly outclassed, as distinct from the latter bunch of slackers taking us for a ride.”
And while we’re on the rough subject, in 2015 we looked at league champions’ lowest top scorers. Ruben Baraja led the scoring charts for Valencia when they won La Liga in 2001-02. With seven goals.
A perfect hat-trick of assists
“Kevin De Bruyne got a hat-trick of assists against Spurs. Has any play ever got a perfect hat-trick of assists (left foot, right foot, header),” asks Ian Burnett.
Oliver Forrest steps up: “If you count the ball coming back off the post as his second assist, Cristiano Ronaldo managed a perfect hat-trick of assists against Napoli last year.”
Promoted three times in a row to the Premier League
“Oliver Norwood was a key player for Brighton when they were promoted in the 2016-2017 season but then was sent on loan to Fulham prior to making a top-flight appearance,” begins Lee. “He established himself as an important cog in Fulham’s promotion-winning season but, again before playing in the Premier League, he was promptly sent to Sheffield United. For the third season on the trot he has been promoted to the Premier League. Has any other player managed this?”
Indeed they have, Lee. Here’s Ross White with the answer: “One player who did achieve the arguably unwanted achievement, without a top-flight appearance in between, was Malky Mackay. Part of Norwich’s title-winning side in 2003-04, Mackay was sold in the September to Championship side West Ham before playing a game. He made 18 league appearances as the club went on to win the play-offs, before being released and signing with Watford … where he was a key cog in Aidy Boothroyd’s surprise play-off winning campaign of 2005-06. He did then go on to play 14 times for the Hornets in their ill-fated Premier League campaign the following season, finishing his career at the club a year later.”
Knowledge archive
Guffen Helleve wrote in 2005: “In the Norwegian women’s Cup final earlier this month, the score between Asker and Strømmen was 0-0 after 90 minutes, but finished 4-0 to Asker after extra-time. Has any team won by a bigger margin after extra-time?”
Surprisingly they had: look no further than the third-round Norwegian men’s Cup clash between Tromsø and local rivals Tromsdalen in 1996. As Nils Ragnar Løvhaug explained: “The score was 3-3 after 90 minutes, but Tromsø went on to win 8-3 after extra-time, with Sigurd Rushfeldt scoring five goals.”
But Rugby were on the receiving end of an even greater added-time thrashing, in 2004-05’s Southern League Cup third-round meeting with Sutton Coldfield. With a minute of normal time remaining, Rugby led 2-0; when the final whistle blew it was 2-2. Rugby, fielding a host of youth-team players and reserves, continued the capitulation by conceding a further six in extra-time to lose 8-2. “The heads dropped and their legs went in extra-time,” admitted Rugby boss Tony Dobson afterwards.
Special mention too must be given to Walsall’s 1995 FA Cup second-round replay with Torquay at the Bescot Stadium. Three apiece after 90 minutes, a Kyle Lightbourne-inspired Walsall pushed on to seal a memorable 8-4 win.
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Can you help?
“After Leeds v Villa, what is the weirdest reason for clearly giving an opposition team a goal?” mails Nicola Haughton.
Chris Lepkowski
(@chrislepkowski)What has been the most dramatic relegation/promotion swing of any league, in any season?
“In this season’s Scottish Highland League (a level below Scottish Division Three) the bottom club, Fort William, ended up with a goal difference of -224,” writes Allan Bremner. “In the course of the 34-game season they shipped 245 goals and scored 21 – that’s an average of just over seven goals against in each game. What is the worst goal difference a team have ever had at the end of a season? And, what is the biggest difference between a top team’s goal difference and that of the bottom team? The top team, Cove Rangers, had a goal difference of 88 making the difference between top and bottom 312 goals.”
“Basingstoke Town were relegated from the Southern League South Division this weekend despite scoring 81 league goals (averaging 1.93 goals per game). Is this some sort of record for a relegated team? Has anyone been relegated and scored even more?” asks Dan Robinson.
mighty alan
(@mightyalan)which grounds have no seating/stand at one end of the ground, apart from @OUFCOfficial?
“Has there been a season when the team top of their league never played the team bottom of the league, because of teams changing position during the season?” ponders Alan Armstrong.
Richard Wilson
(@timomouse)One for next week – Rad went 7 months and 23 games without a win in the Serbian Superliga and remain outside the relegation spots – what’s the worst run a team has had during a season and still not been relegated?
“Sergio Ramos, Lukas Podolski and Landon Donovan are some of the youngest players to reach 100 caps, but they all started young,” writes Matthew Reid. “Who is the centurion with the latest starting point. For example, is there anyone who made their international debut at 27 and went on to reach triple figures?”
Nick Fredriksson
(@NickTheStatsGuy)Which international footballer has played in the most countries? Most games without playing in the same country twice? What’s the fewest games to play on every continent? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
“FC Twente have just won the Eerste Divisie (Dutch second tier) less than 10 years after their 2010 Eredivisie title. Is this the shortest time between a team winning a top-flight league and a second-tier title in that order?” wonders Alex Guttenplan. “Teams demoted (eg Juventus) don’t count.”
“Luis Suárez will line up for Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals having played for Ajax and Liverpool in the past. Has any player played a European semi, having already played for the three other semi-finalists?” asks R Reisman.
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