“In September, Lithuania became the lowest Fifa-ranked country (143rd) to score against the Netherlands, who were ranked seventh,” writes Pete Tomlin. “That means a difference of 136 places between the two countries. I have two questions upon hearing this – which is the lowest-ranked team to score against England (since the rankings began in 1992) and what is the biggest difference between teams where the lower-ranked team has scored? I was thinking of the respective rankings at the time the matches took place rather than current rankings.”
The Netherlands, who won that match 3-2 in September, will meet Lithuania in the return fixture on Monday. The respective rankings are now sixth and 146th so the gap will be 140 places if Lithuania manage to score in Amsterdam.
Before we get to that, let’s address the question of good old England and the lowest-ranked teams to which they have conceded. A few of you mentioned David Healy’s winner for Northern Ireland at Windsor Park in 2005. Northern Ireland were ranked 116 in the world on that famous night, which puts them fifth on the list – but they are, as far as we’re aware, the lowest-ranked team to beat England.
San Marino were No 122 in the world when Davide Gualtieri scored straight from kick-off in November 1993. “I was at the game,” writes Mark Casarotto. “I was studying in Bologna and, completely naive about what spending time with travelling England fans in the 1990s would be like, decided it’d be fun to go with some friends. My abiding memory is laughter and applause from the England section when Gualtieri scored after 8.3 seconds.”
To our surprise, Gualtieri’s goal is only second on the list. “Kazakhstan, ranked 131 in the world, scored when they lost 5-1 to England in October 2008,” writes Tess Sherlock. “Their ranking was marginally worse than San Marino in 1993 – but only because there were more countries in Fifa [rankings] 15 years later.”
Here’s a list of some of the lowest-ranked teams who have scored against England. All were competitive games apart from a mildly shambolic friendly against Malta just before Euro 2000.
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65 North Macedonia 1-1 England, November 2023
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75 Albania 1-3 England, March 2001
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87 Macedonia 1-2 England, September 2003
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91 England 2-2 MacedoniaOctober 2002
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116 Northern Ireland 1-0 England, September 2005
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118 Malta 1-2 England, June 2000
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120 England 5-3 KosovoSeptember 2019
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122 San Marino 1-7 England, November 1993
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131 England 5-1 KazakhstanOctober 2008
As for part two of the question, the gap of 136 places between the Netherlands and Lithuania is beaten by at least three fixtures. There were 157 places between Germany (two) and Liechtenstein (159) when Germany won 9-1 in a friendly in 1996, and 183 between Switzerland (13) and Gibraltar (196) when the Swiss romped to a 6-1 victory in a European Championship qualifier in November 2019.
On this occasion, San Marino are top of the list. “In October 2023, a Denmark team featuring plenty of top talent squeaked past San Marino in a Euros qualifier, winning 2-1 on their visit to the principality,” writes Robbie Dale. “At the time Denmark were ranked 18th in the world, while San Marino were at the bottom of the pile in 207th – a gap of 189.”
Rapidly reset records (redux)
In last week’s Knowledge, we looked at short-lived football records. Before we add to the list, a bit of housekeeping.
We weren’t sure whether Gillingham’s 8-1 win over Southend in August 1987 was a club record. Richard Caulfield, who has provided a link to the excellent Gillingham FC Scrapbook confirms it was, at the time, the Gills’ biggest victory in the Football League. So that means that by plugging Chesterfield 10-0 the following Saturday, they broke their record on consecutive weekends.
Plenty of you have been in touch with further suggestions, with Mike Slattery (and others) harking back to Euro 2004.
“Wayne Rooney became the youngest goalscorer at a men’s European Championship finals when he scored twice for England against Switzerland on 17 June 2004,” writes Mike. “Four days later, in Switzerland’s next match, Johan Vonlanthen scored his side’s only goal in a 3-1 defeat to France to take the record. He is exactly 100 days younger than Rooney.”
Mike adds that “in contrast to that short gap, it was another 20 years before Vonlanthen’s mark was broken by Lamine Yamal, in the Euro 2024 semi final.” So what became of Vonlanthen? Born in Colombia, he qualified for Switzerland via his stepfather and began his career with Young Boys, joining PSV in 2003 and then Red Bull Salzburg in 2006. Knee problems caused him to retire in 2012, but he returned with Grasshoppers a year later and won 40 Swiss caps in total.
Dan John informs us of a much more recent occurrence. “Last month, Rob Tankiewicz was selected in Cardiff’s starting XI against Newport in the EFL Trophy. At 16 years and 117 days old, he broke Aaron Ramsey’s record as the club’s youngest player, set back in 2007. Tankiewicz held the record for 64 minutes before being substituted for Axel Donczew, aged just 15 years and 234 days, who took his place.”
Finally, here’s David Steele with a similar scenario: “On 8 May 1993, Tony Hopper (born 31 May 1976) became Carlisle’s youngest player when he started against Scarborough. At half-time he was replaced by Rory Delap (born 6 July 1976) who took the record from him.”
Sadly, Tony Hopper died in 2018 after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Delap paid tribute to his former teammatesaying: “Tony was Carlisle through and through, and he never let them down.”
From crown to cap
“In light of Guernseyman Alex Scott’s first call-up for England, how many players born in the crown dependencies have been capped by England? Matt Le Tissier is the obvious one. You could expand this to Home Nations too: Scotland’s Kieran Tierney is another I know of, but that’s as far as my knowledge expands!” writes Athena Blight.
For those unfamiliar with the phrase, the British crown dependencies are the Isle of Man and the bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. And this is a pretty short answer across both men’s and women’s football. With the usual Knowledge caveat that not all answers are definitive, we think these are the only players born in the crown dependencies who have represented the home nations at senior level.
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Matt Le Tissier England, 8 caps, 1994-97 (b Guernsey)
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Maya Le Tissier England, 10 caps, 2022- (b Guernsey)
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Graeme Le Saux England, 36 caps, 1994-2000 (b Jersey)
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Kieran Tierney Scotland, 50 caps, 2016- (b Isle of Man)
Plenty of others have played at under-21 or B level, including Daryl Clare, Luke Harris (currently on loan at Oxford from Fulham), Chris Jones, Michael Spillane and Trevor Wood. The most famous is probably Jones, a forward who made more than 100 appearances for Spurs between 1973 and 1982 before joining Manchester City.
Jones made one England Under-21 appearance in 1978, replacing Birmingham City’s Keith Bertschin for the last five minutes of a 1-1 draw against Yugoslavia. The England U21 team that night included Glenn Hoddle, Peter Reid. And a 29-year-old Joe Corrigan, but that’s another story.
It’s also worth mentioning Celtic forward Callum Osmand, who joined the club from Fulham last summer. Osmand was born in Jersey but had represented Wales at youth level – only for a recent rule change to prevent Craig Bellamy from offering him a senior call-up. The new rules mean that Channel Islanders are only eligible to represent England at senior level.
Knowledge archive
“Everton had three goals disallowed for offside against Fulham on Saturday,” writes Steve. “Which Premier League team has experienced the most disallowed goals in any one match?”
We had a similar question way back in 2006, though it was about all teams rather than just the Premier League. Here’s what we said back them.
John Hilditch fondly recalled going to Elland Road “around 1997” to watch his beloved Arsenal sneak an undeserved 0-0 after Leeds had three goals ruled out – each time for offside and twice in two minutes for Brian Deane. “Their fans weren’t too happy afterwards, so it was a case of shut up, walk quickly and get out of here.” Wise man, John.
Neil Lavery remembered Burnley having three disallowed in the first half-hour at Charlton in the 1994-95 season but, when it came to hard-luck stories, Jon Brown reckoned we need not cast our mind back any further than October 16, 2004 (which may still be too tricky for some), when Lincoln City had four goals disallowed in the opening 30 minutes of their clash with Oxford United.
After painstaking research, however, the Knowledge can beat that: on 2 April 2000, Celtic had four goals chalked off in 17 minutes against Kilmarnock, including three from a distraught Tommy Johnson. Needless to say, they still won the match 4-2.
Can you help?
“Commentating on Manchester City v Liverpool (in the US), Jon Champion observed that the City fans were chanting about Steven Gerrard’s slip of 10 years earlier and commented: ‘Long memories.’ As a football fan, 10 years (actually 11) doesn’t seem like a particularly long time to me. So which football chants display the longest memories?” asks Chris Taylor.
“Last weekend, Como’s Álvaro Morata has had some beef with Yerry Mina which resulted in Morata getting a yellow card. Soon after, Morata asked to be substituted. Has this ever happened before: a player who isn’t (physically) injured explicitly asking to leave the pitch?” wonders Joran Lamisse.
“Arsenal have yet to concede a goal in four Champions League games. Has any team won a European competition (current or historic) without conceding a goal? If not, who conceded the fewest?” asks Graeme Hepper.
“James Overy of Manchester United has been called up to the Australian senior side before making a senior appearance for his club,” writes Chris Carter. “United have two other players who have played a senior international before making their club debut (Diego León for Paraguay and James Scanlon of Gibraltar). Has a club ever had more internationals who haven’t played a senior game?”
