Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat to Fleetwood Town means Cheltenham have now gone 11 league matches without scoring a goal. That has matched the longest run ever in the English Football League.
Coventry also went 11 games without scoring way back in the 1919-20 season. Hartlepool then repeated that unfortunate feat in 1992-93. Here, the PA news agency takes a closer look at the longest scoreless runs and how Cheltenham compare.
Junior Quitirna and Jack Marriott scored Fleetwood’s goals as Cheltenham had veteran defender Curtis Davies sent off on their way to another unwanted record.
Their nine-game drought up to September 23’s 3-0 defeat to Stevenage was already the longest from the start of a Football League season, beating Halifax Town’s eight in 1990-91. Last Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Lincoln extended that before Fleetwood won by the same scoreline
Expanding the picture to all competitions does not improve matters, with Cheltenham beaten 2-0 by Birmingham in the Carabao Cup. The ball did end up in Bristol Rovers’ goal in the Papa John’s Trophy but via an own goal from James Gibbons, who also scored at the right end in a 4-1 Rovers win.
Town striker Robert Street also scored an own goal in that game, one of three by Cheltenham players this season along with Liam Smith in the 3-0 loss to Bolton and Will Ferry for the only goal at Reading. Davies’ red card against Fleetwood was also their third of the season after James Olayinka and Nathan Butler-Oyedeji left them down to nine men against Peterborough.
Manager Wade Elliott was sacked after that 3-0 defeat, the eighth game in the sequence, with interim boss Kevin Russell and permanent replacement Darrell Clarke as yet unable to stop the rot.
Feeling Blue
The original 11-game record dates back over a century to Coventry’s dismal 1919-20 season in the second tier.
The Sky Blues, playing the same opponents on back-to-back weekends throughout their run, lost 1-0 to Fulham before a goalless draw in the return fixture and then drew 0-0 and lost 1-0 against Bristol City.
Huddersfield beat them 2-0 and 5-0, they followed a goalless draw with a 2-0 defeat against both Blackpool and West Ham, and another 0-0 with Leyton Orient completed the sequence before they ended it in style, Billy Walker’s opener setting up a 3-2 win over Stoke on Christmas Day 1919.
The first six scoreless games were under the caretaker management of Harry Harbourne, after William Clayton had been sacked following a poor start to the season. Harry Pollitt, who took over in time for the first Blackpool fixture and oversaw the remainder of the run, was later banned from football for life after being found guilty of match-fixing offences in the season-ending double-header against BurHartlepool, who like Cheltenham today were playing in the third tier, started their 1993 goalless run in the same way Coventry ended theirs as they drew 0-0 with Orient on January 9, before matching that result next time out against Preston.
They then lost 3-0 to Huddersfield and 2-0 in successive games against Rotherham, Reading and Port Vale. Mansfield and Bolton also beat them by two goals, interspersed with 1-0 losses to Bournemouth and Chester, before a goalless draw with Wigan.
A 1-1 draw against Blackpool on March 6 finally ended the run and ensured they did not break the record outright – can Cheltenham do likewise against Derby County on Saturday?
