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Which football teams have the longest opening-day unbeaten runs? | The Knowledge

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“Port Vale are unbeaten on the opening day of the season since 2004. Can anyone top that for longer opening-day unbeaten runs?” we asked after hearing of the club’s 15-season stretch.

As ever, you were quick to fill our knowledge gap by tweeting back your suggestions. Let’s start with English football and a club 56 miles north of the Potteries outfit who once went five seasons longer than Vale. “Leeds between 1990-91 and 2009-10 (20 seasons) were unbeaten on the opening day – it’s the longest run in Football League history,” reckons Jonny Cooper. So, if that’s the record, Vale will have to stay blemish-free in season-openers until August 2026 to beat it.

If we take things further afield, then Celtic can boast a 22-season stretch of going unbeaten on the opening weekend. “The Hoops haven’t lost an opening-day fixture since 3 August 1997,” tweets Craig. But Juventus have had an even longer run than Celtic’s. As Louis Hudson points out, the serial Serie A champions did not taste defeat on the opening weekend of an Italian league season between 1983 and 2009. In 1982 they lost 1-0 away at Sampdoria, and in 2010 were beaten by the same scoreline at Bari, but between then they didn’t lose. That’s a 27-season stretch.

In 2005 Juve beat Chievo 1-0 in the season they were relegated over the Calciopoli scandal. So whether that game should count could be construed as debatable. Even if the run ends there, though, they still match Celtic. Has any club had a longer unbeaten run in season-openers? Let us know at knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.

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A Baird day at the office

“Has a player been sent off for committing a bookable offence, with the referee then playing advantage to the opposing team, and then committing a second bookable offence before the phase of play ended?” asks Dean Graham.

It has happened, Dean, and we had a few readers emailing in with the same example. James Morrison fired his answer in first, so here it is: “I’m sure a few will remember this incident of two yellow cards in one move resulting in a red. In a Euros qualifier between Northern Ireland and Hungary from September 2015, the former Fulham defender Chris Baird brought down a Hungary player who was nowhere near the ball during a break, then sprinted down the pitch to scythe down another attacker, thereby completing the dubious feat of committing two yellow-card offences in just seven seconds. Champions League perennial Cüneyt Çakir duly obliged and showed two yellows and a red to a bemused looking Baird, who presumably thought the first foul gave him immunity for the second. Here is a video of the incident.

Northern Ireland’s Chris Baird is shown a red card after receiving two yellow cards for two fouls in under 10 seconds.



Northern Ireland’s Chris Baird is shown a red card after receiving two yellow cards for two fouls in under 10 seconds. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff/Reuters

Goalkeepers scoring on their debuts (2)

Last week, we delved into the subject of goalscoring goalies … on their debuts. But there are more …

Thanks to the Betamax Video Club for resurfacing this from 2016, when on-loan FC Lahti keeper Aleksandr Vasyutin popped up in the 92nd minute against PK-35 to grab an equaliser.

Escape To Suomi
(@EscapeToSuomi)

Goal on debut ✅
92nd minute equaliser ✅
Scored by goalkeeper ✅pic.twitter.com/b9Zt1FNid6

August 14, 2016

“The pass was made, I ran towards the goal, kept an eye on the trajectory of the ball, jumped, felt that I was the first to make it and when I landed I saw that the ball was in the goal,” explained Vasyutin. “I didn’t even understand what had happened at first. And then all of a sudden, congratulations. It felt very nice.”

And Christopher Chan also piped up, with an even more spectacular debut strike. “I am appalled no one answered that Hong Kong goalkeeper Man-fai Tsang scored on his professional debut (and had an assist too),” he tweets. Here it is in all its glory, the Fourway Rangers player embarrassing his TSW Pegasus opposite number in 2011. What’s more, it was his only first-team appearance before being loaned out and then leaving.

Knowledge archive

“Is it true that Albania once barred Celtic defender Danny McGrain from entering the country because he had a beard?” wondered Andrew Oxley in 2007.

Very nearly, is the answer, as communist Albania frowned at all facial hair under its leader Enver Hoxha, who had made beards illegal before Celtic were due to travel for their 1979 European Cup first-round first leg tie against Partizan Tirana. The owner of a fine-follicled face-hugger himself, McGrain was understandably anxious before the trip, recalling that “there was a lot in the press about beards being banned there”.

As it transpired, no one told McGrain to shave it off and he went on to play in a 1-0 defeat. “I would have done it if they had asked, but I had actually seen a few people with them,” added the Celtic legend, whose side subsequently ran out 4-1 winners in the return game. “It was a little intimidating too because when we went outside there were only men in the streets and no women to be seen, but there was no bother at all.”

McGrain went on to win 62 caps for Scotland, before moving into management at Arbroath, where his fancy chin-warmer came to prominence again. “I’ll never forget how the fans took to Danny McGrain and his beard,” recalled then-chairman John Christison of the so-called ‘Danny McGrain’s Bearded Army’. “It was crazy – but brilliant. They would all wear their own beards and we had 700 T-shirts printed up. They sold out in three days.”

For more from the Knowledge archive, click this thing here.

Can you help?

“Kei Kamara started Colorado Rapids’ MLS match against Montreal by scoring an own goal,” begins Jason Maxwell. “He then turned around and scored a hat-trick to make up for it. I’m guessing this isn’t the first time its happened but I assume it’s rare. What’s the highest goals-plus-own-goals total for a player in a match?”

James Dixon
(@thejamesdixon)

What’s the furthest distance between a ground and a signpost for said ground? i.e. not Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire and Chelsea’s home ground.

August 6, 2019

“What is the highest tier of men’s football in which a woman has played?” asks Alexander Ediassen.

Paul Jenkins
(@fourfoot)

Who was the first Premier League footballer to score in the same minute as the number on their shirt?

August 6, 2019

“Before what is expected to be the most exciting and competitive season in the Cymru Premier (formerly Welsh Premier League), I ask if any other country’s top tier has had three-quarters of its team starting with the first three letters of the alphabet (or indeed any three consecutive letters or even any three letters)?” writes Matthew Ahern.

ABC



Photograph: Public Domain

Dan
(@lovesalurk)

Who has made the fewest professional appearances as a “one club man” and over the longest timeframe?

August 6, 2019

Email your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.

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