“In the 1975 FA Cup I was surprised that Ipswich and Leeds needed four games to settle their tie in that season’s quarter-final, with a total attendance of 143,000. My question is: what is the band with the highest total attendance?” asks Nicholas Idoine.
“As the FA recently bowed out of the Premier League and replays are a thing of the past, I was intrigued by this question and consulted the websites of 11v 11.com and Marching on Together to come up with an answer,” begins Michael Haughey . “The match between Ipswich and Leeds (142,849) was seen by fewer people in four games than the 154,201 which saw the three games it took to settle Leeds against Sunderland in 1967. This included Elland Road’s record crowd for the replay.
“Apart from the 1981, 1982 and 1983 FA Cup finals, which went to replays, I immersed myself in the slog of cup games with multiple replays. The 1980 marathon semi-final between Arsenal and Liverpool went to four matches, for a total of 169,083 spectators. The previous season, 143,996 watched Arsenal against Sheffield Wednesday over five matches, including three games at neutral Filbert Street. But Arsenal takes the biscuit 183,197 which saw them tumble to Chelsea in the third round in 1947 after three games with a second replay at White Hart Lane. All on the days when the replays started on Wednesday afternoon.
“Surprisingly in the much-maligned League Cup, 171,334 watched the two 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 190,000 over two stages (100,000 in Tehran, 90,000 in Melbourne)”. And if we take the demand for Scotland into account, Vincent Connolly can exceed even that. “Celtic and Rangers drew 1-1 in the 1971 Scottish Cup Final in front of 120,092 spectators, before Celtic won the replay 2-1 in front of 103,332 spectators. A total of 223,424. Should be close to a winner, right?
Even watching the replays of the English FA Cup final at Wembley, we can’t beat that at all, Vincent. The replayed Manchester United-Brighton final in 1983 boosted attendance 190,593 but the year before the official crowd at Wembley for Tottenham v QPR was recorded as 100,000 for both the final and the replay, so 200,000 all in. It doesn’t beat Celtic-Rangers in 1971.
Stout second-tier people who never made it to the top
“Who has played the most championships without ever playing a match in the top division?” asks Michael Bond.
Dan Seppings did this for us. “I took ‘Championship’ as second-rate, since football wasn’t invented in 1992 and so on. Anyway, the results are as follows:
Tony Ford 506 second level appearances, out of 931 total
Dele Adebola 489 of 639
Wayne Allison 482 of 752
Mike Keeping 470 of 470
Paul McKenna 469 of 554
Simon Garner 464 of 594
Richard Keogh 457 of 626
Don Goedman 456 of 515
Lucas Chambers 455 of 791
Tom Lees 454 of 538
Matt Bell 453 of 478
David Holdsworth 445 of 445
Barry Keukener 444 of 523
Paul Groves 442 of 627
Keith Peacock 434 of 533
“Some of these players are worth disappearing down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. Tony Ford has played more Football League games (931) than any other outfield player. Ever! Dele Adebola was chosen for both the Northern Ireland and Nigeria national teams without being lucky enough to get a cap. Keith Peacock was the Football League’s first ever official substitute… and he was Gavin Peacock’s father. Fred Keeping was a future Real Madrid manager and his father was a medalist at the very first modern Olympic Games in 1896. David Holdsworth became the first person to do it in a competitive match against his own twin brother, Dean. Anyway, proof that lower league football is much more interesting than this top football.”
Highest scoring in a division for longest streak
“What is the longest streak in which a player has been the top scorer in the same division?” Aaron asks. “Has anyone played more than twelve seasons in a row?”
Dirk Maas likes a challenge. “This question is almost impossible to answer, but thanks to RSSSF I think it is Pelé, who has become top scorer nine times in a row in the Campeonato Paulista, the highest professional state football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. 1957 and 1965.”
“The only other player who can match Pelé’s feat of nine consecutive top scorer titles is Josef Bican. Between the seasons 1937-38 and 1946-47 (in 1944-45 Bican did not play competitive football as no championship was held due to the Second World War), he became top scorer of every top division, Czechoslovak and Bohemian-Moravian. But due to the political unrest in the 1930s and 1940s, these competitions were not always Czechoslovak.”
Renard’s remarkable run of consecutive titles
“Last week you reported on a player who had won fourteen consecutive titles in the Gibraltar league,” writes Dave Mellinger. “In my email to you last week I missed that this has been matched in a more prominent league: Wendie Renard has played her entire professional career for Lyon, including their run of 14 consecutive Division 1 Féminine titles from 2006-07 . through 2019-2020.”
Knowledge archive
“I was watching the third Test between India and West Indies the other day,” wrote Manas Phadke in July 2011. “I was quite surprised to see Billy Doctrove (who is a referee) sitting in a stand named after him, wearing a Liverpool jersey and kissing the badge for the cameras. Are there any other umpires in international cricket (past or present) who have publicly pledged their allegiance to a football club?”
Roy Proctor was there with some answers. “The most obvious cricket umpire with a publicly recognized football affiliation is the incomparable Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird, who stated in an article for the Guardian in 2008: ‘I have supported Barnsley for 70 years so there is no way I will doing. missed this afternoon.” The afternoon in question was an FA Cup quarter-final between the Tykes and Chelsea, a match which Barnsley won. “Another more current referee is Ian Gould, a wicketkeeper who played in goal for Slough Town and Arsenal, earning him the nickname ‘Gunner’. In July 2009, Gould became chairman of Burnham FC of the Southern Football League. And while I’m not sure which team he supports, legendary West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor, like Gould, was a goalkeeper and played at schoolboy level for Jamaica. He became a referee and officiated a World Cup qualifying match.”
Can you help?
“Is there any competition in the world where the same player holds the record for being the youngest and oldest goalscorer?” asks Harry Dawson.
If Leeds pip Ipswich for promotion and Southampton then win the play-offs, there is a chance that all three relegated clubs will 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 the League One play-offs last season (Peterborough, Bolton and Barnsley) have reached them again this year. Has this 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 recent match against Barrow. Has there ever been a shorter window for a double substitution that was then eliminated?
— B (@BcfcBrad1903) April 30, 2024
“As we are in the late season period of a bit of a managerial merry-go-round…at a low, organized (some would say unorganized) level, five- and six-a-side teams often just sort themselves out. writes Stuart Goodwin. “A lot of regular kickabouts take place where it’s 11 versus 11 and no one is in charge – not even a captain on either side. Since the era of William Sudell and George Ramsay in the late 19th century, which led to what we now know as club managers, have there been any notable examples at pro or semi-pro level where a team has also had no form of managerial presence whatsoever? On the soccer pitch? sideline or as player-manager? Since managers have become 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?”
“Huddersfield Town have just gone an entire season without conceding a single home penalty,” writes Roger Pashby. ‘That is now three consecutive full seasons. You can even participate in cup competitions! The last home penalty was awarded against Cardiff on March 5, 2021 and missed by Yaya Sanogo. That was during the Covid pandemic, so the site was closed at the time. You have to go back to February 25, 2020 and Karlan Grant’s penalty against Bristol City, the last time a paying customer saw Town take a penalty at home. No professional club can match this terrible statistic.”
• Email us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.