Swinging both ways

“On 16 August, Bohemians beat Dublin neighbours UCD 10-1 in their record league win. On 19 August, they suffered a 6-1 reversal away to champions Dundalk in the league-cup semi-final. Is this the biggest swing in the margin of victory/defeat for a team in consecutive games?” asks John Shortall.

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So, 14’s the score to beat. Earlier this month, symmetrical swings also added up to that number in the Northern Premier League, as Richard Worrall observes. “They had a 7-0 home win (v Grantham Town) on 8 October; four days later on 12 October they lost by a similar score playing away to FC United.”

“Funnily enough we just saw a bigger swing in the World Cup qualifiers,” says Chris Page. “Iran registered a 14-0 win over Cambodia, before falling 1-0 to Bahrain five days later. That’s a swing of 15.”

Eighty years ago, Robert Kaye reckons Hull City matched the 15-goal swing: on 31 December 1938 they lost 2-6 to Bradford, but next time out – on 14 January – they thumped Carlisle 11-0.

However, the Oceania 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign can trump it, says Pablo Miguez. “Tonga defeated Samoa 1-0 in the opening game. They faced Australia in the second match, losing 22-0. I believe this was – for two days – a World Cup qualifying record … until Australia defeated American Samoa 31-0.” Australia ended their four-game campaign with a goal difference of +66.

Meanwhile, Chris Rawson found two teams playing back-to-back in late 1963, with a nine-goal swing ensuing: “On Boxing Day, Burnley hosted United (Bobby Charlton et al) at Turf Moor and ran out 6-1 winners, with future United star Willie Morgan scoring twice in front of 35,764. Two days later, the reverse fixture was held at Old Trafford, with United winning 5-1 having brought back the 17-year-old George Best to wear the No 11 shirt!”

Page has the final word, however. “You’d be hard pressed to topple AS Adema’s tally from 2002. On 31 October they recorded their famous world record 149-0 win over SO l’Emyrne. Ten days later, they were eliminated from the Coupe de Madagascar, losing 3-2 to Fifafifi Toamasina. That’s a swing of 150. I can’t imagine anyone else having a greater fall from grace than that.” So: anyone have 151?

Stadiums with missing pieces

“Apart from Oxford United,” tweets Mighty Alan, “which grounds have no seating/stand at one end of the ground?”

Three-sided grounds aren’t uncommon. Martin O’Gorman contributes Central Coast Stadium, home to A-League’s Central Coast Mariners. “At least the view distracts from the dire football being played on the pitch,” he snorts.

One spare end can be found at the homes of various Scottish sides, Kevyn Whitelaw observes. One end of Partick Thistle’s Firhill is open, “where once there was a decent-sized terrace”. Hamilton Accies, who they used to groundshare with, “relocated to a new stadium which also has one end open, with a double decker bus often parked there.”

Michael Haughey adds Falkirk Stadium, which has only three stands and a fence down one touchline. He also cites Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas, home to Rayo Vallecano, with its permanent wall of advertising hoardings at one end …

Whitelaw continues: “I had a season ticket at Rayo Vallecano for a couple of years. Directly behind the hoardings are flats that overlook the ground. Locals used to ‘rent out’ balcony spaces for the bigger matches.”

“However, the above can be bested,” Haughey says. “Since the turn of the millennium, the home of the sons of the rock, Dumbarton FC, has been a one-sided stadium with a fence running around the pitch.”

Rob McEvoy has word of opportunism from Thailand: “BG Pathum United have the three-sided Leo Stadium which is missing a stand down the side. The reason for this is that for some unknown reason they built the stadium close to the edge of their large plot of land (an old bottling plant, BG stands for Bangkok Glass).”

The neighbours: a car showroom. “Realising the club need that land, they want a kings ransom for it. The three sides built are really good as well. Interestingly, the owner of Oxford is Thai too, although he didn’t build the ground.”

Any more strange tales behind wonky stadiums? Mail us or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.

Knowledge archive

“Have any managers or coaches been injured during a game while sitting on the bench or in the technical area?” asked Davide Corran in August 2009.

Some managers, it seems, are a magnet for trouble. Take Sydney FC’s John Kosmina. “John Kosmina was flattened by Danny Allsopp of Melbourne Victory during a game,” suggests James Coppard. “I don’t think he was badly hurt at all but, this wasn’t the first time he’s had a tangle with a Melbourne player – in 2006, Victory’s Kevin Muscat sent him tumbling too, while Kosmina was manager of Adelaide United. Personally, what I find weirdest is how the ‘bench’ at Melbourne’s games appears to be flimsy garden chairs atop a plastic sheet? Surely that’s just asking for trouble.”

It should be pointed out that Kosmina, though floored, seemed to suffer little or no ill-effects from his tangles with opposition players. And, despite taking a trip to A&E, neither was Tromso coach, Harald Abrekk, after this incident (there’s a little footage of the actual event scattered throughout the Norwegian phoenix-from-the-flames style reconstruction). “This took place in on 16 May 1995 at Aspmyra Stadium in Bodo,” writes Jostein Nygard. “In this northern Norwegian ‘derby’ between Bodo/Glimt and Tromso (Bodo and Tromso might be 200 miles apart, but it’s still considered a ‘derby’ here), on the most important round of the year (the night before the National Day), the Tromso coach, Harald Abrekk, was taken to the hospital after being ‘hit’ by the Bodo/Glimt physio.

“It’s in Norwegian, but you should get a good impression of what happened,” he adds rather optimistically of the video footage. “In the interview he tells about how they were up 2-1, and he did it to ‘waste time’ (the match ended 2-1, so I guess it worked). ‘Were you hurt?’ ‘No.’ ‘Did it hurt at all?’ ‘No.’”

One manager who certainly was hurt in the dugout was the former Tottenham manager Juande Ramos. The then Sevilla manager was knocked unconscious by an object thrown from the Real Betis crowd after Freddie Kanouté had equalised for the visitors in the city derby and the match was abandoned.

Unfortunately Ramos is not alone in finding the technical area in Spain a dangerous place. The Real Sociedad coach Juan Manuel Lillo needed stitches after being struck by an object thrown from Real’s own fans during the club’s 0-0 draw with Eibar in November 2008.

But managers aren’t always the victims of touchline violence, as Joe Marshall points out: “I seem to remember Trevor Francis punching reserve team goalkeeper Alex Kolinko in the face when he was manager of Crystal Palace. I believe this resulted in Kolinko receiving a bloody nose.”

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Can you help?

Simon Drury asks: “Freddie Ljungberg’s booking [from the sidelines] against Sheffield United was apparently 11 years since his last yellow card in the Premier League. Has anyone ever gone longer between consecutive bookings or red cards?”

From Anthony Gee: “This weekend Dundee United, who were top of the Scottish Championship, were beaten 4-0 by Queen of the South. What is the biggest defeat for a league leader?”

Chesterfield v Wrexham met in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round, with Wrexham winning Tuesday’s replay, says Ken Foster. “In 1997 they also met in the FA Cup sixth round proper. Has there ever been a fixture separated by so many rounds before?”

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