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ABANDONED
MATCHES
On Saturday January 10th 1953
63,499 were at St James' Park Newcastle for the FA Cup Third Round tie
between Newcastle United and Swansea Town - but the match was abandoned after
just 8
minutes play because of fog!
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Another particularly
unfortunate abandonment was at Colchester United on Saturday 27th November
1948. The First Round FA Cup tie against Reading attracted 19,072 fans but
was abandoned after 35 minutes due to fog. Amazingly that remained their
record attendance at their Layer Road ground that they eventually left in
2008.
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Football rules state that a match
should last 90 minutes so should a match be abandoned and the 90 minutes
is not completed generally it is ordered to be replayed with the original
match being void. Only rarely in Football League history has the result of
an abandoned match been allowed to stand, the five major instances being
-
Match 1
When Oldham
Athletic arrived at Ayresome Park for a Division 1 fixture on Easter
Saturday (April 3rd) 1915 they were challenging for the League
championship. However the more goals they conceded the more agitated they
became with the referee who they believed was guilty of making poor
decisions. After 10 minutes of the second half ref Mr H Smith of
Nottingham awarded a penalty to Middlesbrough after Billy Cook fouled a
home player in the penalty area. Walter Tinsley scored from the spot to
complete his hat-trick and give Middlesbrough a 4-1 lead. Shortly
afterwards Billy Cook was again guilty of foul play and the referee sent
him off. Well, he tried to but Cook refused to leave the field. So the
referee did, and abandoned the match. The result was allowed to stand and
Oldham finished the season in second place, just one point behind League
champions Everton. Cook received a 12-month ban from football.
Match 2
Until
they lost their place in the Football League
in 1972 a midweek match in Barrow was always a bit of a trip to a
footballing outpost. No more so than when Gillingham tried to get there
for a Fourth Division match on Monday October 9th 1961. With Barrow not
having floodlights the match was due to kick off at 5.15pm and a train
from London at 9.05 would have got the Gillingham party there an hour
before kick off. Sadly the coach taking them to Euston Station was delayed
and they missed the train. The next train wouldn't have got them to Barrow
until after kick off time. Road travel was too slow (few motorways in
those days) and scheduled flights to Manchester and Newcastle were both
full so they chartered their own plane - something of a first in those
days. That was delayed as well and it only got them as far as Blackpool
with another 70 miles to travel by car. The kick off was put back 15
minutes and even with a police escort for part of the way Gillingham only
managed to get to Holker Street at the new start time...and they still
needed to change! With that sort of preparation it was hardly surprising
that by the 76th minute Barrow had taken a 7-0 lead. But by then - despite
turning on the training lights - it was too dark to continue and
Gillingham's agony was ended with an abandonment. Thankfully the Football
League took pity on Gillingham and did not order the match to be replayed,
the 7-0 result standing.
One player who was particularly
pleased that the match was not replayed was Gillingham's Billy Jervis. It
was the only Football League match he ever played in so if the match had
been declared null and void his one league appearance would have been
deleted from the record books.
Match 3
Six years
after winning the European Cup Manchester United found
themselves battling against relegation in 1973/74. In one of those 'did it
really happen' storylines their last match of the season at Old Trafford
was against Manchester City on Saturday April 27th 1974 which they had to
win to have any chance of avoiding the drop. In the City side was former
United legend Denis Law and in the 81st minute, with the score at 0-0, Law
back-heeled the ball into the United net for the only goal of the match.
He didn't celebrate, was immediately substituted and in fact retired
without playing any more club football. Law later said
'I have seldom felt so depressed in my
life as I did that weekend'.
But it wasn't the goal that
relegated Manchester United. Even if Law hadn't scored and the match had
ended 0-0 United would still have gone down. United fans knew that and
with five minutes remaining they invaded the pitch, perhaps hoping for a
second chance if the match was abandoned and subsequently replayed.
Referee David Smith did abandon the match but the result was allowed to
stand and Manchester United were condemned to the Second Division in
1974/5.
Match 4
Bradford City entertained Lincoln City on Saturday 11th May 1985 in what
should
 have been a celebration match. It was the final match of a
season that had seen Bradford City win the Division 3 title. Instead it
turned into one of football's worst tragedies. A discarded match set
alight rubbish that had accumulated under the Main Stand over the years
and the fire soon engulfed the antiquated wooden structure. A total of 56
people died as a result of the fire with over 250 suffering injuries. The
first sign of a fire were seen at 3.40 and two minutes later referee Don
Shaw abandoned the match with the scoreline 0-0. The Football League
decreed that the match would not be replayed and the score would stand and
thus it became the shortest officially completed Football League match.
Match 5
Saturday March 16th 2002 saw a unique abandonment of the First
Division fixture between Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion after
what became known as the 'Battle of Bramall Lane'. After 9 minutes
Sheffield United's keeper Simon Tracey was sent off for handling the ball
outside the penalty area, United manager Neil Warnock using his first
substitution by replacing an outfield player with the sub goalkeeper.
Warnock later used his second and third subs and amazingly one of those,
George Santos, was sent off in the 65th minute for a foul on Andy Johnson
while the other sub, Patrick Suffo, received his marching orders in the
skirmish that followed the Santos sending off. That left United with 8
players and no substitutions left. So when Michael Brown had to leave the
pitch with an injury in the 80th minute and Robert Ullathorne followed him
a couple of minutes later for the same reason it left Sheffield United
with just 6 players. The minimum number a team must have is 7 players so
ref Eddie Wolstenholme had no option but to abandon the game in the 82nd
minute with visitors WBA leading 3-0.
WBA manager Gary Megson was not a
happy bunny. He said after the match..
'There will be no replay. If we are
called back to Bramall Lane we shall kick-off and then walk off the pitch.
I've been in professional football since 16 and I'm 42 now. I've never
ever witnessed anything as disgraceful as that. There is no place for that
in any game of football, let alone professional football.'
Megson also accused Warnock of
faking the injuries to end the game but an investigation cleared the
Blades' manager of that accusation although United were fined £10,000 and
the result was allowed to stand.
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England have suffered just three abandoned
matches in their long history. The first of those was in Buenos Aires on
Sunday May 17th 1953 when a friendly against Argentina was stopped after
23 minutes with the score at 0-0 when heavy rain resulted in a waterlogged
pitch. More recently, on Wednesday February 15th 1995 a 'friendly' in
Dublin against the Republic of Ireland was abandoned after 27 minutes due
to rioting within an English section of the crowd. England were losing 0-1
at the time. The only time England have suffered an abandonment in a
competitive fixture was against Czechoslovakia in Bratislava on Wednesday
29th October 1975. The European Championship qualifier was abandoned after
17 minutes due to fog with the score 0-0. The match was then played the
following day and England lost 1-2, England's first defeat with Don Revie
as manager.
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Probably the most unusual international abandonment
involved our friends north of the border. Scotland were due to play in
Estonia in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday 9th October 1996. They
trained at the Kadrioru Stadium in Tallinn the night before the match and
found that the temporary floodlights to be used at the
match were not up to standard. Scotland complained and FIFA agreed with
them and brought forward the kick off time from 6.45 in the evening to 3
o'clock in the afternoon. The short notice of that decision caused a
logistical nightmare for the Estonians - not least the TV contract was for
an evening match - so they just didn't turn up. The 1000 or so crowd
chanted 'One team in Tallinn, there's only one team in Tallinn',
Billy Dodds kicked off and passed to John Collins then ref Miroslav
Radoman abandoned the game...after just 3 seconds. The match was ordered
to be replayed at a neutral venue, the two countries drawing 0-0 in Monaco
on Tuesday 11th February 1997. Scotland qualified for the finals, Estonia
didn't!
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 Moving
to a new ground is never universally popular amongst fans but when
Brighton moved ground after 95 years it was universally unpopular - their
Goldstone Ground had been sold to make way for a retail park but they had
no shiny new stadium to move to! Fans accused the owners of
asset-stripping and breaking promises which brought together supporters
from all parts of the country to oppose what was happening on the south
coast. That protest culminated in a pitch invasion at what was due to be
their last match at the Goldstone (although they subsequently agreed to
stay for another season) against York City on Saturday April 27th 1996. At
3.16 fans invaded the Goldstone pitch from both ends and after both
crossbars were pulled down the match was abandoned.
The consequences? The York match had to be replayed - it was a vital match
for the visitors as they needed a point to stay in Division 2.
Surprisingly the match was not played behind closed doors. It might as
well have been though with it being played on the morning
of Thursday May 9th and being all-ticket with tickets only being sold the
day before the match. Mind you the programme was free! The 2106 who did
attend saw York win 3-1 to retain their Division 2 place. Brighton also
suffered a suspended 3 point deduction which almost cost them their League
place. The reason for that was that the following season saw another pitch
invasion - against Lincoln on Tuesday October 1st 1996 - and they were
docked two of those three points. They won their last match at the
Goldstone - 1-0 against Doncaster on Saturday April 26th 1997 to set up a
winner-take-all last match of the season at Hereford United. They were
equal on points at the bottom of Division 3 - the winner would stay in the
League, the loser would drop to the Conference with a draw benefiting
Brighton on goals scored. Brighton drew 1-1 and so 14 years after playing
in an FA Cup final they lost their ground but just kept their place in the
Football League.
'We will remember the
celebrations and tears, the agonies and ecstasies, the joy and despair.
They can take away the fabric, but they can't take away the memories.'
Brighton fan Tim Carder
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An abandonment
in the
1904/05 season changed the outcome of the League championship. Everton's match at
Woolwich Arsenal in November was abandoned after 76 minutes due to fog
with the Merseysiders leading 3-1. When the match was eventually played again, just
before the end of the season when they had to play 3 matches in 4 days, Everton lost 2-1. If the original match had
been completed (and if the scoreline had remained the same), Everton would
have pipped Newcastle to the League Championship by a point. Instead they
finished second (Everton's
results and league table).
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The
Division 1 fixture between Sheffield
Wednesday and Aston Villa played on Saturday November 26th 1898 was
abandoned after 79 minutes due to bad light. Sheffield Wednesday were 3-1
up at the time. Uniquely, rather than let the score stand or order the
whole match to be replayed, the League decreed that the two clubs should
resume the match at Sheffield and play only the final 11 minutes. This
they did nearly four months later on Monday March 13th 1899 when Sheffield
Wednesday added one more goal to make the final score 4-1. By the time the
match was resumed both clubs had changed their line-ups - Billy
Garraty of Aston Villa, and Samuel Bosworth, Bob Ferrier, Ambrose Langley,
Jack Pryce and Fred Richards (who scored the final goal) of Wednesday all
played in only the final 11 minutes. Surely these players were the first
substitutes used in a League match!
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On Saturday January 8th 1927 Oldham
Athletic entertained Brentford in the Third Round of the FA Cup. Play was
stopped after 73 minutes because of thick fog and believing the match had
been abandoned Brentford manager Harry Curtis told his players to have
their after-match bath. However the fog soon lifted and the referee wanted
to resume play but Curtis explained what had happened and declined to
allow his players to resume the match as he said it would be bad for their
health. So with Oldham leading 2-1 the match was really abandoned being
restaged two days later when visitors Brentford won 4-2.
1926/27 FA Cup
results.
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The First Division match between
Chelsea and Charlton Athletic on Christmas Day 1937 suffered an
abandonment when heavy fog descended on Stamford Bridge. The fog was so
bad that Charlton 'keeper Sam Bartram was unaware that the match had
ended, assuming that his inactivity was due to the play being in the
Chelsea half. It was ten minutes or more before a policeman told him that
the game had been abandoned.
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On
Boxing Day 1932 Jimmy Oakes was a member of the Port Vale side
that played at Charlton Athletic in a Second Division match that was
abandoned after 63 minutes due to fog. In January he was transferred to
Charlton for £3000 and when the re-arranged fixture was played on April
26th Oakes played again but this time for Charlton against his former Port
Vale team-mates. So we can say he is the only person ever to play for both
sides in the same League fixture! When the first match was abandoned Port
Vale were leading 4-1 but in the
replayed match Charlton finished 2-1 victors.
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Tuesday
November 2nd 2010 unusually saw three Football League matches abandoned.
The League 2 match between Cheltenham and Southend lasted 66 minutes
before a floodlight failure brought the match to an early end. Amazingly
the two other matches in League 1 lasted a combined total of just 9
minutes! Heavy rain falling on already
waterlogged pitches saw the Hartlepool v Notts County match last just 3
minutes while the Rochdale v Oldham survived only 6 minutes.
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