Last week’s Knowledge touched on the subject of football magazines recording hard shots, long throws and other niche feats. Alex Murphy may have witnessed the longest throw ever for a magazine series he worked on in the 1990s.
“I don’t know if Shoot! covered the subject as well, but the magazine I worked on as features editor – Total Football – had a long-running obsession with long throw-ins,” writes Alex. “One day we trotted down to St Andrew’s with a photographer and a 50m tape measure and invited Birmingham City and Wales midfielder, Andy Legg, to attempt a new world record. Despite suffering from an ankle knock, and amid complaints about the wet surface, Legg hurled a football the entire width of the pitch.
“The feat was officially witnessed by myself and Blues midfield ace Paul Tait (he of the infamous ‘Shit on the Villa T-shirt’) and our signed affidavits were accepted by a surprisingly lax and unquestioning Guinness Book of Records. Legg’s feat was duly recorded in the following year’s volume. I recall with shame that our headline on the feature was: ‘What a tosser!’
“A few months later we invited legendary Tranmere Rovers thrower-inner, Dave Challinor to take on Legg’s mark. He did it with ease, and took his place in the next edition of the book. Alas, the carefully chosen headline on this feature announced: ‘What an even bigger tosser!’ We were young and foolish.”
Since then Challinor has lost his world record, which is currently held by American flip-thrower Michael Lewis, who hurled a ball 59.17 metres in Frisco, Texas in April 2019 (that’s well over the halfway line). Here he is showing off his skills in 2015:
Hat-trick scoring debutant substitutes
“After Erling Braut Haaland, has anyone else scored a hat-trick after coming on for their debut as a sub?” asks Wayne Duncan.
They certainly have, Wayne. In fact, it was a feat even more extraordinary than Haaland’s. “There is Reza Ghoochannejhad from Iran,” writes Stephan Wijnen. “Last summer, he was bought by Dutch Eredivisie side PEC Zwolle. Ghoochannejhad made his debut for that club on 15 September 2019, coming on as a substitute in the 56th minute against RKC Waalwijk. RKC were leading 2-1 at that moment. In 32 minutes, he managed to score four goals (60th, 81st, 83rd and 88th minutes). PEC won the match by 6-2.” Beat that Erling!
Sacked while top of the league (2)
Noble Francis has been in touch with another manager for our collection of table-toppers handed their P45s … “In addition to the answers already provided, you can surely add the great Bela Guttmann, who took over Milan in 1953. As Jonathan Wilson tells it: ‘He had them top of the table 19 games into his second season when a string of disputes with the board led, once again, to his dismissal. “I have been sacked,” he told a stunned press conference, “even though I am neither a criminal nor a homosexual. Goodbye.” From then on he insisted on a clause in his contracts that he could not be sacked if his team were top of the table.’”
Unique trophy lifts (Brian Kilcline edition)
Following on from a question about Jordan Henderson’s signature trophy lift, Matthew Rudd has been in touch with another player who displayed a distinctive technique when hoisting a shiny pot in the air for thousands of fans to see. “This is very niche, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the great Brian Kilcline is the only FA Cup-winning skipper who lifted the trophy to the Wembley crowd while holding it round the waist, rather than the handles,” he writes.
“A few seconds later, when he got to the end of the Royal Box and the photographers demanded their traditional pose, you can hear one snapper shout ‘Handles!’ at the Coventry City captain, who duly obliged, but then when he reaches the bottom of the stairs and the Wembley pitch, he is holding it by the waist again. I had the good fortune to interview him many years later when he was playing for Halifax Town, and I asked him about it. He had forgotten doing it, and needed to think, but then remembered how much holding the handles hurt him, as he had suffered a thigh injury during the game while fouling Spurs’ Gary Mabbutt which had required his substitution and the angle his arms were at when he held the Cup round the waist didn’t make him wince, but when he held the handles, it did.”
Knowledge archive
“Port Vale striker Leon Constantine appears to share his name with the titles of two films. Is he unique in this respect?” pondered Nigel Stubbs in February 2006.
Well, Nigel, regarding mainstream movies, he is. However, as Andrew Wright points out, when it comes to general films, he isn’t quite on his own. “I may be stretching things a bit here,” he begins ominously. “But how about … Rocky Baptiste [formerly of Farnborough, Luton, Stevenage, Margate and Gravesend & Northfleet]? Obviously, one name comes from the legendary boxing flick, but the other is the name of a little-known 2003 French short film, sketchy details of which can be found here.”
And while Paul Jenkins suspiciously claims that both Tommy Jaws and Alfie Schindler’s-List played up front for Motherwell in the 1950s, he does also suggest much-travelled goalkeeper Eric Nixon. “He counts as there is a 1975 film about terminal illness called Eric,” he explains, although our research suggests it may have just been a television drama. However, special mention must go to Graham Clark, who comes ever so close by putting forward former Queen’s Park defender David Alexander. “At least I’m presuming he’s known as Dave,” he says.
Can you help?
“Once, on a disastrous tour to France with my school team, I played so terribly at right back that I was substituted, in spite of the fact that our only sub was the reserve goalkeeper,” recalls Benjie Goodhart. “Has any outfield player ever played so badly they’ve been similarly embarrassed?”
Stephan Wijnen
(@Wino1977)
“All four of Sheffield Wednesday striker Atdhe Nuhiu’s goals this season have come in injury time,” writes Gareth Taylor. “Has there been a player with a longer run of consecutive goals in injury time?”
“Lincoln City are currently fielding Max Melbourne and Conor Coventry – their city namesakes being 17,000km apart. Can any other side beat this?” asks Andrew Newton.
“When. I was growing up in the seventies, I never remember goalkeepers going up for corners and the like in the last minute as a desperate move to get a goal. Nowadays it is pretty normal in a cup match and other similar scenarios. Who was the first to do this? my first memory is Peter Schmeichel? Any others,” asks Peter Briffa.
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