Going Howard's way

Last updated: 11th December 2007   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Going Howard's way

Howard: all four tiers

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Martin Tyler's stats and facts column is better than ever and will be here all season on skysports.com!

Sky Sports' voice of football and his back-up team of experts are here to answer your questions and queries on all things statistical and historical from the beautiful game.

It could be on a side in the Premier League or Football League, international scene or European competitions - or it could be about an individual player or manager.

If you have spotted something from a game or have been stumped by a pub quiz question, simply Email here and Martin will do his best to answer.

Tyler's starting stat - The old two-one

Sometimes stats have a weird and wonderful symmetry about them - and I was at White Hart Lane on Sunday to see just that happen. Way back in 1955, the last time Tottenham had won only two of their opening 15 league fixtures, they won their 16th game. Against Manchester City. By the scoreline of 2-1. For goalscorers Pascal Chimbonda and Jermain Defoe read Sid McClellan and David Dunmore 52 years ago. It was also Spurs' seventh consecutive Premier League win over City and the fourth time in a row that they have beaten them by that old 2-1 scoreline.

UNITED'S 100 CLUB
Martin. I know Ryan Giggs crops up nearly every week in your column and I see this weekend he has passed 100 league goals for Man Utd. But there were, I think, 10 others who have already done it. Who are they please? Brian Malcolm
MARTIN SAYS: There have indeed been 10 other Manchester United players to pass 100 league goals, although only Mark Hughes has managed the feat all that recently. The other nine though, all have their place in United folklore for one reason or another and I am sure even our younger readers will recognise the names. Leading the way is the one and only Sir Bobby Charlton, followed by Jack Rowley who played after the Second World War and actually scored in the 1948 FA Cup final win over Blackpool, as did another of the ton-up club, Stan Pearson. Like Charlton, Dennis Violett survived the Munich air crash, while we all know Denis Law and George Best. The list also includes he of the cannonball shot, David Herd, and Tommy Taylor, one of the great side that were sadly lost on that fateful February night in 1958. Once he has recovered from his knee injury Paul Scholes will be next in the exclusive club, having notched 96 league goals to date himself. Here is that top 10 of United's league goalscorers.

PLAYERLEAGUE GOALS
Bobby Charlton199
Jack Rowley182
Denis Law171
Dennis Viollet171
Joe Spence158
George Best137
Stan Pearson127
Mark Hughes120
David Herd114
Tommy Taylor112

BLUES BACKYARD
Hi Martin - great column - have this nagging feeling that Chelsea have had more than their fair share of good fortune in the Mourinho/Grant era regarding FA and Carling Cup draws - be interested to know if this is so - how many home ties and how often have they been drawn against non Premier League opposition? Keep up the good work. ChrisMARTIN SAYS: Well Chris, Chelsea have had more home draws than away in cup competitions since Jose Mourinho came to the club in the summer of 2004, but I am not sure they have been as lucky with the draws as you might expect. Since the start of the 2004-05 season, and taking into account the third round draw for this season's FA Cup and the League Cup quarter-final that is still to be played but discounting two-legged semi-finals and replays, they have found themselves in 25 cup draws. Of those, 18 have been played at Stamford Bridge and just seven away from home. But before you start screaming 'I was right, I was right!', it is worth baring in mind Chris that 15 of those 25 ties have actually been against Premier League opposition. They have played 9 of those at home though, so I suppose Lady Luck has favoured them. The one time they have found themselves in banana skin territory and away against lower league opposition was this season's League Cup when they had to go to the KC Stadium and take on Hull City in what was Avram Gran't second game in charge. They won 4-0 though and in the three and a bit seasons Chelsea have never lost to lower league opponents! Which does not bode well for Championship strugglers and local rivals QPR who travel to Stamford Bridge in the third round of the FA Cup in January.

LOWEST OF THE LOT?
Martin, OK, I didn't expect us to get anything from Old Trafford and at least we scored. Naturally I am already fearing the worst, but was wondering. Is our six points the worst ever in the Premier League at this stage of the season? Stu McDermott
MARTIN SAYS: It has clearly been a difficult start to life among the big boys for Derby, but theirs is not the worst start in the history of the Premier League, Stuey. True, they are not far off it, but you can gain some encouragement from the fact that after 16 games, they have one more point than the record low at this stage. That honour goes to the Sunderland side of 2005-06, who won just one and drew just two of their first 16 games to total five points. The omens though are not that good, because they were relegated that season. So too were Bolton in 1995-96 when they also had six points, like Derby, at this stage. In fact Stu, of the 15 teams that have been bottom at this stage of a Premier League campaign, 12 of them ended up being relegated! The only four sides to have avoided it are West Brom in 2004-05, who were of course bottom at Christmas but still beat the drop, Southampton in 1998-99 - although had 10 points from 16 games - and Coventry City in 1996-97, who also had a round 10 at the same stage.

SWELL-AND ROAD
Martin, I know you usually deal with Premiership but I was at Elland Road on Saturday to see Leeds thump Huddersfield 4-0 in front of our biggest crowd of the season. Surely League One, or the old Third Division has never seen such a crowd? Was it the highest ever? Andy Leich
MARTIN SAYS: It was a whopping crowd, for League One at least, at Leeds on Saturday and the biggest of some big attendances that have swelled Elland Road this season. But it is not a record for this level of football Andy: that belongs to another Yorkshire derby where, funnily enough, the score was also 4-0. It came on Boxing Day in 1979, when Sheffield Wednesday entertained arch rivals Sheffield United in a Steel City derby back in the old Third Division, or the third tier of English football. The goalscorers were Ian Mellor, Terry Curran, Mark Smith and Jeff King and the crowd at Hillsborough was a massive 49,309! So Leeds fans, you still have some way to go!

GOING HOWARD'S WAY
Martin, I'm a Luton fan and was very happy to see Steve Howard score at Old Trafford last Saturday. By my reckoning he has now scored in all four divisions. I was trying to think of other current Premier League players who've achieved that feat and I can only think of Robert Earnshaw - are there any others? Dave Wright
MARTIN SAYS: You are absolutely correct Dave. Steve Howard scored in League Two when he was playing for Hartlepool and scored in League One and the Championship during his time at Luton Town before his goal on Saturday completed his quadruple. You are also correct to say that Howard's Derby team-mate Robert Earnshaw has also completed that feat - but did you know he has in fact scored hat-tricks in all four divisions? He hit trebles for Cardiff in the lower leagues and for West Brom in the top flight. We've had a look for other current Premier League players who have scored in all four divisions and have come up with the names of Bobby Zamora (Brighton, Tottenham, West Ham), Matt Taylor (Luton and Portsmouth) and, surprisingly, Steve Finnan (Notts County, Fulham, Liverpool). Feel free to mail in if you think of any we have missed.

YAKUB-UNIQUE
Martin, having read your column and remembered some of it, I know that Yakubu has scored a hat-trick in the Champions League before and now he has scored hat-trick for TWO different Premier League clubs? Does this set him apart from the likes of Henry, Van Nistelrooy and Owen? Patrick Ojo
MARTIN SAYS: In a way Patrick, yes. But it was always going to set him apart from Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy, because they only ever played for one Premier League club, so can't have matched the Nigerian in scoring hat-tricks for two different clubs. But, there are three other strikers who have done it in Europe's premier competition and for two clubs back home. Alan Shearer scored Premier League trebles for Blackburn and Newcastle and did it for the Toon in the Champions League; Andy Cole did it in the league for Newcastle and Manchester United and did it in Europe for United, while Michael Owen scored three in a game for Liverpool in the Champions League and again in the league, as well as for Newcastle. But, Yakubu can claim one thing none of those other English sharp-shooters can - his Champions League hat-trick came for a different club. It came back in 2002 when he scored three times for Maccabi Haifa against Olympiakos, two years before he scored four for Portsmouth against Middlesbrough (who he went on to join of course) and another three years before his first hat-trick in an Everton shirt.

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