Royce Franklin, a life member of the Association of Football Statisticians, digs up yet more fascinating facts about football
SINCE THE inception of the Football League in 1888, 61 league matches have ended with one of the sides scoring 10 or more goals.
In these days of a more sophisticated approach to team formations, fitness etc., it is hardly surprising such scores have diminished over the years.
Before the Second World War, apart from a gap between seasons 1919/20 and 1925/26, most years attracted at least one game with double figures.
Since the leagues re-commenced in 1946, however, there has been a marked decline. In that time Latics are the only team to have reached double figures twice. The games against Chester in January, 1952 resulted in an 11-2 victory and Latics’ record win was on Boxing Day 1962 – 11-0 against Southport.
The last recorded double figures’ score was as long ago as November 7, 1987 when Manchester City beat Huddersfield Town 10-1.
The only team to have recorded a double figures’ away victory is Sheffield United who beat Burslem Port Vale 10-0 on December 10, 1892.
The highest aggregate score for all teams in the top division was on Boxing Day 1963 when 66 goals were scored. At that time, there were 22 teams in what was Division One (11 games for a full fixture list). Birmingham and Arsenal did not play until two days later when Arsenal won 4-1 making the total 71.
Notable scores that Boxing Day were: Blackpool 1, Chelsea 5; Burnley 6, Man Utd 1; Fulham 10, Ipswich 1; Liverpool 6, Stoke 1; West Brom 4, Spurs 4; West Ham 2, Blackburn 8.
When Latics drew 0-0 against Brentford March 29, 2014, it was the first such score for the team since the penultimate game in the 2011/12 season when they drew 0-0 at Bury, a sequence of 86 league games without a no-score draw.
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