Post by jonw on Mar 29, 2020 20:07:39 GMT
Pundits waxed lyrical last season about the achievements of Manchester City, and how their total dominance of games was producing an unprecedented Premier League record number of shots per game.
There are no official records, unsurprisingly, to tell us which match in our 120 year history produced the most shots on target but thanks to an ever so slightly OCD spectator in 1925 we have a quite remarkable statistic from the home Braintree & District League match with Haverhill Rovers on 31st October.
After what had been a very one-sided match the spectator told the press that the Haverhill goalkeeper had saved 155 shots! That statistic is both incredible and, by today’s standards, dubious. Even if we had 155 on target shots in the game where we achieved our record score (15-3 v Hopes of Birmingham in January 1939) it would have seemed unlikely that we could have had a further 140 chances, not including those that went wide, over the bar or were blocked. The final score in this game in which it seems we dominated completely, was only Crittall Athletic 3 Haverhill Rovers 1!
As recently as 2016 Liverpool beat the Premier League record for shots on target, with 17 v Watford in a 6-1 win. Later that year Manchester United managed 38 against Burnley at Old Trafford but could only draw 0-0.
Clearly we won’t be able to find a challenger to our 155 shots in the top flight, but surely it was beaten in the match that produced the world record score…when you consider that the score was 149-0!? For many years the record score had been Arbroath 36 Bon Accord 0 but that was more than tripled when Madagascan champions AS Adema beat Stade Olymique L'Emyrne in 2002. However, the number of shots in that game was exactly 149. The losing side took control of the game in protest at a refereeing decision and repeatedly put the ball in their own net straight from each kick off.
We will never know the true facts behind that game against Haverhill. If the figures are accurate our fans must have left Cressing Road extremely frustrated!
Article originally appeared in the 2018-19 programme v Eastleigh.
There are no official records, unsurprisingly, to tell us which match in our 120 year history produced the most shots on target but thanks to an ever so slightly OCD spectator in 1925 we have a quite remarkable statistic from the home Braintree & District League match with Haverhill Rovers on 31st October.
After what had been a very one-sided match the spectator told the press that the Haverhill goalkeeper had saved 155 shots! That statistic is both incredible and, by today’s standards, dubious. Even if we had 155 on target shots in the game where we achieved our record score (15-3 v Hopes of Birmingham in January 1939) it would have seemed unlikely that we could have had a further 140 chances, not including those that went wide, over the bar or were blocked. The final score in this game in which it seems we dominated completely, was only Crittall Athletic 3 Haverhill Rovers 1!
As recently as 2016 Liverpool beat the Premier League record for shots on target, with 17 v Watford in a 6-1 win. Later that year Manchester United managed 38 against Burnley at Old Trafford but could only draw 0-0.
Clearly we won’t be able to find a challenger to our 155 shots in the top flight, but surely it was beaten in the match that produced the world record score…when you consider that the score was 149-0!? For many years the record score had been Arbroath 36 Bon Accord 0 but that was more than tripled when Madagascan champions AS Adema beat Stade Olymique L'Emyrne in 2002. However, the number of shots in that game was exactly 149. The losing side took control of the game in protest at a refereeing decision and repeatedly put the ball in their own net straight from each kick off.
We will never know the true facts behind that game against Haverhill. If the figures are accurate our fans must have left Cressing Road extremely frustrated!
Article originally appeared in the 2018-19 programme v Eastleigh.
