Plus: The worst ever team-mates; more teams who were relegated from the same division two years in a row; and Spinal Tap revisited. Send your questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk and follow us on Twitter
"Is Dirk Kuyt's dramatic equaliser in the 102nd minute against Arsenal the latest goal scored in a 90-minute match?" wondered Haris Odobasic.
The short answer, Haris, is no. Daft as it sounds, there have been a few examples of games going way behind the distance and being decided after the 102nd minute.
First, we should discount Alister Campell's claim of "another late equaliser at the Arsenal, in September 1988, Alan Smith scoring at home to Southampton in, if I remember correctly, the 14th minute of injury time, awarded mainly due to the Saints time wasting". You can insert your own joke about Alister Campbell getting his facts wrong because, according to the Guardian report, it was a pretty late equaliser, but not that late: it came in the seventh of nine added minutes. Although to say it was mainly due to time wasting might be a bit harsh: part of the delay was caused by Paul Davis breaking Glenn Cockerill's jaw with a haymaker.
The first correct Kuyt-beater comes from Greg Cooper, who reminds us of a famous goal scored by Manchester United's Anderson back in 2005. It came in the 106th minute and gave Gremio ? who were down to seven men ? victory in a promotion play-off match against Nautico. Their team also contained Liverpool's Lucas, and was managed by the current Brazilian coach Mano Menezes. The match became known as the Batalha dos Aflitos (the Battle of the Afflicted) and even has a Wikipedia page of its own.
Sebastian Hughes can top that, however. "I am not sure of the date of the game, but I was watching a Cypriot Cup match between Apollon Limassol and Anorthosis Famagusta," he says. "The game was poised at 1-1 when Anorthosis, the away side, won a penalty. The Apollon players were convinced he dived (looked a penalty from where I was sitting). It then all kicked off, players on both sides crowding the referee, fans invading the pitch and finally the Apollon players deciding to leave the pitch in protest. Eventually the referee restored order, but the allotted 90 minutes was already up so 30 minutes of injury time was shown. The penalty was missed and Apollon went on to score twice in the 30 minutes of injury time, the second was comfortably after the 110th minute."
As the Knowledge went to press, we were waiting to hear back from the Cyprus FA about whether the game, which we believe was played on 22 December 2004, did feature goals after the 110th minute. We'll update this page once we have the answer.
WITH TEAM-MATES LIKE YOU ...
"Stephen Hunt's last two Premier League seasons with Reading and Hull have ended in relegation," notes Alex Hynes. "He is now in danger again at Wolves, so he could be relegated in three successive seasons for three different clubs. Has this ever happened before?"
The obvious starting point here is Neil Redfearn, who, despite being a very handy player, seemed to be a relegation banker in the late 1990s. It felt like Redfearn operated on a mezzanine between the Premier League and the Championship. Every year, or so it seemed, he would be signed by a newly promoted club, who would then be relegated. But in fact, he only racked up two consecutive relegations: with Barnsley in 1998 and Charlton in 1999. That summer he joined newly promoted Bradford, who were in the relegation zone when they sold Redfearn to Wigan the following March. The exorcism complete, they avoided the drop with a famous last-day victory over Liverpool.
There are plenty of examples of men who have, er, succeeded where Redfearn failed. Antonio Novi points out that, between 1999 and 2004, Fabio Pecchia was relegated from Serie A four years out of five, including three in a row. The clubs in question were Sampdoria, Torino, Napoli and then, two years later, Como.
Jonas Hansson has two more examples from Sweden. "Azerbaijan striker Anatoli Ponomarev played for �sters IF (2007), Degerfors IF (2008) and Vasalunds IF (2009), all in Sweden's second-highest league Superettan, and they all were relegated," he says. "Speaking of former Kalmar FF-players, Lasse Johansson was relegated with �sters IF (1998), Kalmar FF (1999) and Gais (2000)."
Don't think England is missing out here. "Drewe Broughton seems to have some sort of reputation as man capable of helping anyone out of the Football League," says Stephen Shepherd. "The journeyman striker - he's definitely that - was part of the Rushden & Diamonds squad relegated to the Conference in 2006, before moving to Chester. They then sent him out on loan to Boston for the back end of the 2006-07 season, where he was part of another relegation. And the following year, he was again on loan - from MK Dons this time - at Wrexham for two spells. The second of them finished in mid-April but the damage had been done and the Dragons were the third of Broughton's clubs in three seasons to drop out of the league. As a Gillingham fan, it caused moderate concern when he rocked up at Priestfield for a trial in the summer of 2008, let me assure you..."
Broughton, however, has nothing on the worst team-mate of all time. Step forward (or, rather, bugger off to another club quicksmart) Carlos Fernando Navarro Montoya. "Montoya, a Colombian-Argentinian goalkeeper, was highly successful at Boca Juniors," begins Martin Laplace. "However, he moved to Spain, in order to play in Extremadura (1997) achieving relegation. He then moved to Merida, also achieving the dubious honours. Afterwards, he moved to Tenerife, where, yes, he went down again."
Wait, that's not all. "Later in his career, he achieved three more successive relegations, with Nueva Chicago and Olimpo (from first to second) and from Lujan de Cuyo (from Argentino A to Argentino B) in Argentina. He is regarded, however, as one of the best goalies ever to have played in Argentina."
RELEGATED FROM THE SAME LEAGUE TWO YEARS IN A ROW (2)
Following last week's Knowledge, we have had more examples of clubs relegated friom the same league two years in a row.
Probably the most infamous case is of Fluminense in the Brazilian League. Paolo Padilha takes up the story:
"Fluminense were relegated from the top division in Brazil in 1996, only to pull a Goldman Sachs-style move and be deemed 'too big' to drop, with the federation allowing them to play the Serie A again the following year by expanding the competition from 24 to 26 clubs, thus promoting the top two from Serie B while keeping Fluminense up," he writes. "However, there was little improvement at Fluminense the following season. In a sense they did even worse, finishing second from bottom once again but this time in a field of 26 clubs.
"The Brazilian Federation, perhaps trying to preserve its own dignity, made Fluminense play the Serie B in 1998. Fluminense did not disappoint, and managed to drop to the third division rather than promote back to the Serie A, thus having to play in the Serie C in 1999," he adds. "That year they did manage promotion to Serie B but, in another set of even more complex maneuvers in which the CBF tossed its dignity into the same trash can it had tossed its integrity decades earlier, Fluminense were scooped up into the equivalent of the first division of the Copa Jo�o Havelange (a competition that was as attractive as its namesake), which had substituted the Serie A only for the year 2000. Fluminense may have paid some karmic debt by playing and promoting from the third division, but everybody in Brazil still knows they owe another year in the Serie B."
Meanwhile Andy Williams points out that Spvgg Bayreuth have also a curious relationship between finishing in the bottom places and actually going down.
"In 1987-88 they finished 17th out of 20 (four teams went down), he writes, "But the German Football League relegated Oberhausen instead.
"In 1988-89 they finished 17th again. The German Football League decided Offenbach's 'B�rgschaft' (a form of Bond) was of the wrong kind and relegated them instead.
"In 1989-90 they finished 18th. The German Football League were looking at relegating two other sides for financial reasons but in the end they let both stay up and Bayreuth went down.
"The German Football League relegated several sides around the 80's and 90's and were very arbitrary about it, one club would remain unpunished for something which saw another club go down. Those games have stopped in recent years."
Finally, as Tony Levaggi points out, if you throw re-election to the fourth division into the mix, then Hartlepool were re-elected four times on the trot from 1960-64, and were re-elected an impressive 11 times to the Fourth Division.
KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
"In the legendary rockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap, bass player Derek Smalls wears an early 80s Umbro football shirt in several scenes, including the famous airport security scene. Who did he support? It looks a bit like Bradford City to me, but I thought he was from the West Midlands," wrote Mark Meadowcroft in 2003 while adjusting his spandex strides, strapping on his axe and turning his amp to 11.
We've dealt with this enquiry before Mark ... back in the day when money didn't matter and it was just about the music. The garment you speak of was in fact a Shrewsbury Town replica shirt.
"Speaking of Derek Smalls in his Shrewsbury shirt, only a true Tap obsessive will have spotted David St Hubbins's favourite team: Wolverhampton Wanderers," says Stephen Buckland, going one louder. "As the band arrive in New York for their very first gig, the guitarist and vocalist can be seen sporting the familiar gold and black scarf behind manager Ian Faith. It's only a few frames, but it's there. Buy the video, folks."
Meanwhile Andy Barnes says that "Whilst watching Spinal Tap again, I noticed Derek Smalls sporting a claret and blue baseball cap a lot through the first half of the film.
"The writing is difficult to make out, but as they go barbers shop at the grave of The King, you can just make out the words West Ham across the front," he adds. "A pretty good reference to their supposed East-end roots, but a bit odd considering he's got his Shrewsbury Town shirt on at the same time."
For even more football-related Tap references and a whole host of other useless but compelling information, why not take a trip through the Knowledge archive
CAN YOU HELP?
"What is the largest recorded away attendance at a match (not including neutral venues)?" wonders James Robeson.
"The Copa del Rey final had 13 World Cup winners either playing or on the bench. Is this a record for a club match?" asks David Thomson.
"Looking at the picture of Ronaldo and Pepe, and probably a bit of scaffolding, holding a very large Copa del Rey, it got me thinking as to what are the largest and smallest trophies up for grabs in professional football?" muses Paul Cowell.
"I know that the man of the match award is unofficial and just a bit of fun, but have there been any occasions when, after the award has been announced (just before the end of the match), the recipient has gone and got himself sent off, or shamed in some other such way?" asks Jack King.
"Two weeks ago there were seven draws in 11 League Two games," says Paul Hodges. "Is this a record for a single set of fixtures in one league?"
"Now that Gainsborough Trinity have managed to avoid relegation from the Blue Square North to the Evo-Stick Premier, they maintain their record of never being relegated since they joined the Midland League in 1889," begins John Spooner. "It's also true that they've never been promoted - in seasons when they won the Midland League, there was no promotion. They were elected to the Football League in 1896, and voted out in 1912, but even if you count these as a promotion and relegation (which I don't), that's nearly 100 years. Can any other club boast such an impressive record of mediocrity?"
Send your questions and answers to knowledge@guardian.co.uk or twitter.com/TheKnowledge_GU.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/apr/27/the-knowledge-latest-goal-ever
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