“Juventus are unbeaten in Serie A yet have been bobbing around fourth and fifth all season,” wrote Ricardo Bortolon last week. “I know there are a number of teams who stayed unbeaten all season and came second, but has anybody finished lower than that without losing a game?”

Juventus’s unbeaten run fell at the 22nd hurdle when they were beaten 2-1 by Napoli on Saturday, but we won’t be letting that get in the way of a good trivia question. Before we get to the main answer, it’s worth revisiting the most famous example of an unbeaten team who came second. In 1978-79, Perugia finished three points behind Milan in Serie A after an extraordinary campaign: P30 W11 D19 L0 F34 A16 Pts41. Their away record was even more striking: three wins, 12 draws. You can read more about it in Scott Murray’s Joy of Six.

Right, to business. With the considerable help of the marvellous RSSSF, not to mention our dear readers, we’ve been able to find a handful of unbeaten also-rans. All the examples are from men’s football; the best we could find in the women’s game were teams who finished second.

Where else to start but in Cuba in 1970-71, where the top three teams were all unbeaten. This was bad news for Industriales, who came third with a record of P9 W4 D5 L0. Two of those four wins were by an 8-0 scoreline, which must have made all the draws even more confusing.

At least two other teams have finished third without losing a game: Kahrabaa Al-Wusta in Iraq in 1971-72 (P7 W2 D5 L0) and LLPP Jeenyo in Somalia in 2012. The first example comes with an asterisk: Kahrabaa Al-Wusta lost 2-0 to Jami’at Baghdad but were awarded a 2-0 win because their opponents fielded a couple of ineligible players.

The shorter the season, the greater the scope for this sort of thing. In San Marino in 1989-90, Tre Fiori finished second in the regular season with a record of P18 W7 D11 L0. They then went into a complex playoff system in which they lost both their games – but only on penalties after 1-1 draws in the actual game. Across the whole competition they finished fourth with a record of P20 W7 D13 L0.

The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A format was even more complicated. In 1977, Botafogo finished fifth despite losing none of their 19 games – but they finished with more points than the two teams above them. You can unravel the whole thing here.

There are at least two other fifth-placed invincibles. Ahly Tripoli in the Libyan Premier League on 1987 (P17 W5 D12 L0, including four consecutive goalless draws at one stage) and Jupiter SC (Negombo) in Sri Lanka in 1999. Their record is even more striking because, unlike most of the previous examples, they had more wins than draws. The teams above them set an even faster pace and Jupiter SC missed out on the playoffs on goal difference.

And so to our winner, if that’s the right word, nominated by both Ben and Sean DeLoughry. “Violette, seven-time champions of Haiti, somehow managed to finish unbeaten in the bottom half of the 2019 Ligue Haïtienne Ouverture,” writes Sean. “A top-six finish would have been enough for a championship playoff but Violette won two and drew 13 of 15 regular season games to finish ninth of 16.”

As Ben points out, that’s a win percentage of 13.33. Here are their results in full. See if you can spot the outlier: 0-0, 1-1, 4-0, 1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 1-1, 1-1, 1-1, 1-1, 1-1, 0-0, 1-1, 1-0, 0-0.

Trebles against same team with different clubs

“Ayoze Pérez scored a hat-trick against Southampton for Newcastle. He also scored a hat-trick against Southampton for Leicester City. It got me thinking: has any player scored a hat-trick against the same team on three occasions for three different teams?” asks Masai Graham.

It got Masai thinking and Dirk Maas digging. He has found two examples of players who have scored hat-tricks against the same opposition for three different teams:

Billy Hibbert v Bolton Wanderers for Bury in 1907-08, Newcastle in 1911-12 and Bradford in 1921-22.

Johan Devrindt v Beringen for Anderlecht in 1964-65, Club Brugge in 1973-74 and Lokeren in 1974-75.

With Pérez currently at Villarreal and Southampton apparently heading for the Championship, he’ll do well to join the list.

Morley arrives late with a rare feat

“Aaron Morley scored an injury-time winner for Wycombe against Exeter City on New Year’s Day. Bolton immediately recalled him from his loan and, on 4 January, he scored another injury-time winner against Exeter. Has anyone else scored in consecutive games against the same opponent for different clubs?” asks Jack Hayward.

They have indeed. “Jack Lane scored for Brentford in a 1-1 draw against Gillingham on Wednesday 28 January 1931, was transferred to Crystal Palace on Thursday 29 January and scored for his new club in a 5-0 win over Gillingham on Saturday 31 January,” writes Stephen Byrne. “Unlike Morley, neither goal was a last-minute winner.”

More yo-yo action

In last week’s Knowledge we looked at teams that had yo-yoed between the same two divisions. A number of you sent in examples of teams who took a more erratic route between multiple divisions. …

Let’s start with former comedy club Manchester City, who were promoted or relegated in five consecutive seasons from 1997-98 to 2001-02: Division One (now the Championship), Division Two, Division One, Premier League, Division One, Premier League. City romped to the old Division One title under Kevin Keegan in 2001-02, with 99 points and 108 goals from their 46 games. They’ve been in the top flight ever since.

Wimbledon were promoted or relegated in seven out of eight seasons between 1978-79 and 1985-86. The last of those took them into the top flight, where they would cause all sorts of chaos for the next 14 seasons.

Northampton Town had quite the ride in the 1960s, when they went from Division Four to Division One and back again. These weren’t successive promotions or relegations but doing the full return journey in the space of nine years (1960-61 to 1969-70) is pretty good going. Swansea took the same journey in the same timeframe, in their case between 1977-78 and 1986-87.

For more yo-yo teams, click here.

Knowledge archive

“Managers are always complaining about the transfer window,” wrote Steve Arthurs in 2012. “But why have we got one in the first place?”

The story of the transfer window is the story of a flip-flop by the English elite – the Premier League was initially the driving force behind the idea of a transfer window, but by the time it was introduced it was firmly in the “no” camp. In short, the transfer windows were introduced in order to prevent the complete dismantling of the transfer system, though their origins lie in loftier ambitions.

Let’s go all the way back to 1991-92 when the idea was first put to the vote in the top flight. The vote, on the principle of the transfer window, was narrowly defeated because of “one or two smaller clubs who sometimes need to sell in the season and were worried about having to do most of their buying in the summer when their cash flow was poor”.

By December 1992 the idea was being bigged up by the Premier League powers that be. “Several high-profile managers and senior officials, notably Tottenham’s Terry Venables, are in favour of copying Italy’s hugely admired Serie A,” reported Russell Thomas in the Guardian, “and closing shop for the whole season except for a ‘transfer window’ of a fortnight or three weeks in December or January.” Rick Parry, then the Premier League chief executive, added: “Terry’s idea is that managers ought to be coaches, spending time with their players and not looking around for new signings or fending off agents or having to deal with unsettled players.”

Read more …

Can you help?

“Magdeburg were top of the 2.Bundesliga on Friday night after 19 games of the season … despite not having won a single home game,” begins James Plain. “It should have been hung in the Louvre – crowds notwithstanding. But what are the other best examples of tables as works of art?”

“We’re well used to seeing established internationals from the likes of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay et al plying their trade in Europe’s top leagues, but are there any examples of the opposite: Europeans enjoying an extended spell playing in South America while also turning out for their respective (top) nations?” asks Ian Clover.

“Liverpool’s next four fixtures are in different competitions,” notes Nick Williamson. “What’s the longest run of fixtures where each match was in a different competition?”

“Last week Justin Kluivert scored a hat-trick for Bournemouth. This week Dango Ouattara has done the same. What is the record for teams scoring hat-tricks in consecutive games? How about consecutive hat-tricks by different players?” wonders Toby.

“In the recent Premier League match, Manchester United 1-3 Brighton was both the score and the number of shots on target. What’s the highest scoring game where all shots on target resulted in a goal?” asks Mark Holt.

“Who was the first player to have a red card rescinded after a game?” asks Masai Graham.