Man City vs Leicester break Premier League Gifting Day scoring record, but it didn’t coincide until 1963

The The traditional Premier League Gifting Day fixtures have been destroyed due to COVID-19 postponement and only six matches taking place. But they are a collection of fixtures.

City of Manchester beat Leicester 6-3 in a nine-goal thriller that set the record for the most goals scored on Gift Day since the Premier League began in 1992.

Arsenal Norwich crush 5-0, Chelsea come from behind to pass Aston Villa 3-1, while West Ham lost Southampton 3-2 and Tottenham beat Crystal Palace 3-0. The lowest scoring game of the day later saw Brighton score twice to mark one 2-0 win Brentford. Phew!

In total, 28 goals were scored in six matches – 4.6 goals per game on average.

But even if the other four games went with that average number of goals, the 44 doesn’t even come close to the all-time scoring record on Gifts Day in 1963.

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Editor’s Note: This work was first published on December 26, 2011 and has been edited.

On Boxing Day 1963, in the midst of the “Big Freeze”, the English First Division experienced a goal-scoring game unlike anything before. In total, 66 goals were scored in 10 top-flight games, while in all four leagues, 160 were scored, with seven players scoring hat tricks and four being sent off. Here’s what happened.

Fulham 10-1 Ipswich the result was still Fulham’s record win and heaviest defeat to Ipswich and even more impressive given that the Tractor Boys had won the title just 18 months earlier. Ipswich’s deep winger Jimmy Leadbetter received plenty of acclaim last season but was beaten on the day by winger Joe Broadfoot, who was applauded by the home fans after when giving defender Jim Langley an afternoon of pouring rain, albeit heavily. defeat.

The game was essentially over after just 20 minutes when Fulham’s Maurice Cook opened the scoring, before Graham Leggat hit the fastest hat trick ever in the First Division within three minutes in a quagmire on the pitch. Fulham continued to tear against Ipswich and Bobby Howfield then got 3 goals for himself, of which Bobby Robson, Alan Mullery and Leggat finished them for the fourth time. Gerry Baker’s consolation is a rare moment of joy for the away team’s fans.

Fulham boss Bedford Jezzard said after the game: ”It must have been the lovely turkeys we gave them for Christmas. From now on, they get one per week. “Ipswich chairman John Cobbold could only retort: ​​’It can go either way, until the game starts. “

Fulham’s match against Ipswich was played in a bog (Image source: S&G/PA Images via Getty Images)

Federation leaders Blackburn won 8-2 against West Ham away from home, as they enjoy another trip to London. At the start of the season, Rovers conceded seven games against Tottenham and four against Arsenal, and suffered their heaviest home defeat against a side that hasn’t won in the West Ham First Division since November 2.

The Guardian’s Albert Barham summed up the match thus: “Everything West Ham does is tinged with bad luck. Everything Blackburn does is calculated coldly and precisely.”

Between a row on the length of Baggies pants, West Brom came back from 4-2 to win a thrilling 4-4 ​​draw at Hawthorns. Days earlier, West Brom players had gone on strike when told by coach Jimmy Hagan they would have to wear shorts during training in the frigid conditions, but peace was reached before the Boxing Day match and Ken Jones of the Daily Mirror wrote that “the only crisis at the Hawthorns was in the Spurs defence.”

Hagan’s men looked as if they might crumble as Jimmy Greaves volleyed his side into the lead and Baggies captain Don Howe delivered a penalty over the bar after a quarter of an hour. , before Greaves scored Bobby Smith for his 200th goal. The home side bounced back and regained the game with a header from John Kaye, but the score was 3-1 shortly after Cliff Jones had a goal of his own. Clive Clark closed the gap again and made it 3-2, but Greaves proved inspiration for Spurs once again to score two equalizers for the third time in the game.

Even so, the Baggies fell short and, perhaps spurred on by the cold, Mickey Fudge finished a 60-yard run from Clark before Howe modified his penalty kick by scoring the equalizer. tied in the 10th minute to make it 4-4. . Spurs held a draw but were unable to keep up with Blackburn at the top of the table and eventually finished the season in fourth.

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Five out of LiverpoolGoals in 6-1 win over Stoke were scored in the second half and Roger Hunt stole the headlines by netting four of them. Ian St John started scoring, and it was only 1-0 at half-time, but Hunt took over with a quick brace in the first three minutes of the second half and Alf Arrowsmith added a fourth. Another double from Hunt ensures that the Reds are well and truly on their way to glory, with Hunt (31 league goals), St John (21) and Arrowsmith (15) making key contributions to the record. 92 goals for the club in the opening game of Division that season as Bill Shankly’s side went on to win the title.

Andy Lochhead is another person who has scored four goals like Burnley beat Manchester United 6-1, but it was the 18-year-old Scottish male judge Willie Morgan that caught the eye of Eric Todd of The Guardian, who wrote: “[His] the all-round performance was one of the best I’ve seen from one of those tender years. “The Clarets were organized and tight as they prepared to eliminate the FA Cup holders. In the end, United defender Paddy Crerand received a red card.

Lochhead opened the scoring early on after John Angus’ excellent combination, and it took until 22 minutes for Burnley to allow United’s first shot on target – a tame effort by Bobby Charlton. The equalizer came from David Herd, but with Ray Pointer, Brian O’Neil and Lochhead in such form that Todd wrote “United never seemed able to stop any of these characters”, Burnley roared and Lochhead’s volley flew past David Gaskell before the break.

With Morgan at the helm in the second half, the youngster scored his first goal for the club, then scored for Lochhead as the duo scored two more before closing in. United have proved modest, and defeat will cost them dearly when they are four points behind first division leaders Liverpool.

While a bit exaggerated on the scoreline, compared to others on the show, the first line of the Daily Mirror match report aggregates Blackpool 1-5 Chelsea upward. “This is a massacre,” it read. “Everyone could have gone home after the break.”

The Chelsea players spent Christmas Day in a beachfront hotel in preparation for the game, but they showed little interest in each other when the whistle blew and pushed the game out of reach before the break. . Blackpool goalkeeper Tony Walters, busy early on, couldn’t stop Albert Murray from opening the scoring, and Barry Bridges headed in soon after. Bobby Tambling then hit a third before Bridges scored another before half-time to make it 4-0.

Blackpool made some positional changes, but Chelsea were “always far away from the ball” and, despite Dave Durie’s equalizer, saw the game with a Terry Venables strike. Apparently all the Blues have to complain about is full-back Eddie McCreadie being dropped.

For comparison, the rest of the matches that day were poor even though they contributed 17 goals. Nottingham Forest’s 3-3 draw with Sheffield United arguably the most exciting as the Blades were three goals behind and returned to secure a point with two goals from Mick Jones and one from Len Allchurch.

A midland derby Wolves and Aston Villa finished 3-3, although both finished within 10 points of the drop, while Sheffield Wednesday beat Bolton Wanderers 3-0 to condemn the Trotters for a series of outcomes that would eventually lead them to relegation. Managed by the future Barcelona Vic Buckingham boss the Owls won thanks to a double by Colin Dobson and one by Mark Pearson.

The game with the lowest score of the day was played at Filbert Street as Leicester City shock the current champions Everton 2-0. The Toffees lost the title to their bitter rivals at the end of the season and The Sun later asserted that, in the wake of the Gifting Day event, “the pendulum of power in Merseyside has turned from green to green. amazingly red.”