League One side Cheltenham Town equalled the English Football League record for the longest run of games without scoring a goal this season, beginning the new league campaign with an 11-game goal drought.
The goal eventually came at the 12th time of asking – Rob Street scoring in a 1-1 draw with Derby County to ensure his side avoided becoming the first EFL side to go 12 games without scoring a goal.
But the Robins have nonetheless tied an unwanted record. Here are five more of the worst records in English football…
Derby County’s 11 points
Embed from Getty ImagesDerby County set an embarassing record in the 2007-08 season, comfortably going down as the worst Premier League team there has ever been. The Rams secured just 11 points all season long, the lowest total any Premier League team has finished with while they also become the only team to be relegated by March.
Billy Davies was sacked in November and replaced by Paul Jewell but the change had little impact on the club’s fortunes, as they finished with a whopping -69 goal difference and just one league win all season. A disastrous campaign which has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons.
Southampton tie the heaviest Premier League defeat twice
Embed from Getty ImagesLosing a game by nine goals to nil once is bad enough but to do it again less than two years later is almost inconceivable. That’s exactly what Southampton did, however, meaning two of the heaviest ever Premier League defeats were against the Saints.
After Ryan Bertrand was sent off after 12 minutes against Leicester back in 2019, the Foxes went on to take full advantage and thumped Ralph Hassenhuttl’s side as Jamie Vardy and Ayoze Perez both netted hat-tricks. It was a similar story in February 2021 when Alexandre Jankewitz recieved a red card against Manchester United, who ran riot at Old Trafford in a case of deja vu for Hassenhuttl, who was later sacked from the club.
Sunderland’s year without a home win
Embed from Getty ImagesEvery football fan expects to see their team make their home turf a fortress and a difficult place to come for other sides. That was not the case for Sunderland over the course of 2016 and 2017, however, when the club went an incredible 364 days without winning at the Stadium of Light.
The run stretched over the course of two seasons, when the Black Cats were relegated from the Premier League to the Championship. That elusive home win finally came in December 2017 with a 1-0 victory over Fulham, but it did not prevent back-to-back relegations as Sunderland fell into League One in one of the worst spells in the club’s history.
Kevin Pressman’s 13-second red card
Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Kevin Pressman got off to the worst possible start in his side’s clash with Wolves in August 2000. With just 13 seconds played, Pressman came charging out of his goal and made a great stop to deny Temur Ketsbaia. Unfortunately for him, the save was made well outside of his box and left the referee with no option but to send him off, going down in history as the quickest red card in English football.
Richard Dunne’s 10 own goals
Embed from Getty ImagesMost defenders will have the unfortunate experience of putting the ball in their own net at some point in their career. But for Richard Dunne, that experience came around far too often for his liking. The former Aston Villa, Manchester City and QPR defender scored a whopping ten Premier League own goals during his career, three ahead of the closest competition in Jamie Carragher, Phil Jagielka and Martin Skrtel. Dunne made a career out of being a solid top-flight defender but his record of putting the ball in his own net is not one he’ll want to be remembered for.
