Four-ward thinking - Tyler

Who has played - and scored - in the top four divisions in one season? Martin Tyler knows.

Join Martin Tyler and the team for Ford Super Sunday, Fulham v West Brom, Sky Sports 1, from 3pm

The Sky Sports football team - led by commentator Martin Tyler and his first-class back-up crew of researchers and statisticians - pride themselves on being the best in the business.

This is your chance to use some of our expertise! Every Monday Martin will be on hand to answer your statistical posers and put the record straight where required.

You can e-mail us with any statistical questions - and we will do our best to publish the answers on the website. 

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TYLER'S STARTING STAT - 20-20 vision's an FA Cup first

Had our proposed live coverage of Burnley v Liverpool not fallen foul of the weather on Friday, Sky Sports would have witnessed the start of a unique weekend in the FA Cup. Since the format changed in the mid 1920's and the Third Round was moved to January, this year's competition was the first time all the top-flight clubs (the 20 Premiership clubs) avoided each other in the draw. In theory, all 20 could have been in the Fourth Round, but we have lost four and another four are still to secure their passage through. Three of them face replays, but Liverpool of course take on Burnley for the first time and will indeed round off the record-breaking round and the Sky Sports cameras will be at Turf Moor for that as well.

SOME SEATS STILL AVAILABLE...
Martin, where was the lowest ever Premiership attendance? Being a Fulham supporter we take a lot of stick about our support but I believe that Chelsea have this dubious honour.
Eamonn Deller
MARTIN SAYS: Well Eamonn, it's good and bad news with regards to the lowest crowd. No, Fulham do not hold that dubious honour and neither I'm afraid, do Chelsea. It will come as no great surprise to learn that it is Wimbledon (or Milton Keynes as they are of course known), that have the record for the lowest Premiership attendance - and indeed, the lowest top-flight attendance since the war. On Tuesday, January 26, 1993, just 3,039 hardy souls turned out for the visit of Everton. The Toffees took a three-goal lead thanks to one from Ian Snodin and two from Tony Cottee, before John Fashanu pulled one back for the Dons. All four goals came in a frantic 14-minute period, so maybe plenty of people ended up regretting not going! With regards to Chelsea Eamonn, I do remember a Monday night game at Stamford Bridge that attracted a strangely low crowd. It was on November 22, 1993, and just 10,128 came through the turnstiles. In defence of those that stayed away, it did end 0-0.

McKINLAY THE MASTER
Hi Martin, I was born in Nottingham but now live and coach in Texas. I have a friend who like myself is an avid Forest fan. We do however have a disagreement. I say that the late Bob McKinlay has made the most appearances in a Forest shirt. I think in the region of 500. Please tell me I am right or I stand to lose a few dollars!
Graham Harrison, Beaumont, Texas
MARTIN SAYS: Congratulations Graham, you can put your wallet away because you are indeed correct. Bob McKinlay is the record appearance holder for Nottingham Forest. The Scottish defender holds the record for league appearances with 614, and made 678 in total, including 53 in the FA Cup and 11 in the League Cup, in 18 seasons at the City Ground between 1951 and 1969. The next best I can find is Jack Burkett with 464 league appearances (503 in total). McKinlay was born in Lochgelly, Scotland, in 1932 and had a reputation as a gentleman on and off the field. Despite his excellent service for Forest, he was never capped by Scotland and when he retired in 1969, he went on to work as a prison officer in a detention centre near Nottingham.

ARE SHOOT-OUTS IN?
Hi Martin, bit of a dispute between friends here, hope you can help. If a player scores a goal in a penalty shoot-out is it added to his goal tally at the end of the season?
Ross Hynam
MARTIN SAYS: I'm always glad to settle a dispute, providing it's friendly of course, although either you or your friend Ross is going to be disappointed! Penalty shoot-out goals are not added to a player's tally. The reason for this is that the shoot-outs are deemed outside the regulation playing time, which includes extra-time in cup games. By the same token, you will have noticed that when a cup tie does go to penalties the score is still listed as 0-0, 1-1, with the winner of the shoot-out and the score in brackets.

CUP FINAL TREBLES
Dear Martin, Apart from Stan Mortensen's hat-trick in the "Matthews Final" of 1953, have anyone else achieved the same feat? Best Wishes for the New Year.
Srinivas J Rao, Bangalore
MARTIN SAYS: A happy New Year to you too Srinivas. I can tell you that apart from Stan Mortensen in 1953, two other players have managed to score hat-tricks in FA Cup finals, but neither of them in living memory. The first man to bag a treble in the final was Billy Townley of Blackburn Rovers, in the 6-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday at Kennington Oval back in 1890. The second was Notts County's Jimmy Logan, who scored three of Notts County's goals in the 4-1 win over Bolton Wanderers at Goodison Park in 1894. Mortensen of course did it as Blackpool beat Bolton 4-3 at Wembley some 59 years on. It is quite amazing that in another half-century no-one has managed to repeat the feat, even though we have had many players scoring twice in the final, including the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ian Wright, Michael Owen, Bryan Robson, Ricky Villa, Stuart McCall and Ian Rush, who did score twice in the final on two occasions - both against Everton.

WHEN PENALTIES PILE UP
Hi Martin, Crystal Palace seem to be getting a penalty every other match at the moment. Can you tell me which club holds the record for having most penalties given in their favour in a single Premiership campaign?
Daniel Hills, Sidcup
MARTIN SAYS: That's a difficult one Daniel! For all the stats and figures we have at our fingertips, I am afraid I cannot unearth that particular answer, but I can tell you that I don't think anyone has surpassed the 13 penalties Manchester City were awarded in the old First Division in the 1971-72 season. Amazingly, Francis Lee scored all 13 and that is still a record for the most spot-kicks scored in one league season. Chelsea's Graham Roberts came close when he converted 12 penalties as Chelsea won the old Second Division title in 1988-89, but as far as I know, 13 is the record. If anyone has any ideas on penalties awarded to Premiership sides in one season, I would love to hear from them via the e-mail link at the top of this page.

FOUR-WARD THINKING
Is it true that Kerry Dixon is the only player to be top scorer in all four divisions? Plus my mate has been bugging me with this one for ages. Who is the only player to have played in all four divisions in the same season?
Paul Thomason, Newport, Shropshire
MARTIN SAYS: Two very good questions there Paul, about two of England's finest goalscorers in recent years. First of all though, according to my records Kerry Dixon was only top scorer in three of the four divisions. He was indeed the leading scorer in Division Three in 1982-83 with Reading and Divisions Two and One with Chelsea in 1983-84 and 1984-85, but of the three seasons he played in Division Four with the Royals he did not top the scoring charts. I have heard this one before Paul, and can only assume it is one of these popular myths that sometimes gets picked up on. One thing that is actually fact and not fiction is the identity of the one player to play in all four divisions in one season - and indeed score in each division. That unique achievement belongs to my Sky Sports colleague, Tony Cottee, who in the 2000-01 season found the net for Leicester (Premiership), Norwich City (Division One), Millwall (Division Two) and Barnet (Division Three).

POINTING THE WAY
Hi Martin. What's the highest points total at the end of the season in the old 1st Division/Premier League? And which team achieved it? I was wondering if Chelsea could beat it, I hope not seeing as I'm a Liverpool fan.
Tim Hornibrook
MARTIN SAYS: In this day and age Tim, the points record gets somewhat confusing. First we have the record for the days when it used to be two points for a win, then we have three points for a win. Then we have the old First Division and the Premiership when it was 42 games a season, right up to the modern-day game when a top-flight season consists of 38 league games. But fear not, I can give you all the points total records from those categories. As for Chelsea, with 55 points from 22 games, they are on course for 95 points at this moment in time. Which would be a new record, as you can see below...

TOP-FLIGHT POINTS RECORDS 
Competition	Pts for win	Games pld	Team	Season	Total
Old First Division 	2pts  	42 games 	Liverpool 	1978-79  	68pts 
Old First Division  	3pts 	42 games 	Everton  	1985-85 	90pts 
Premier League  	3pts  	42 games 	Manchester United  	1993-94 	92pts 
Premier League  	3pts  	38 games 	Manchester United  	1999-20 	91pts