football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
match between
Arbroath
Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902.
It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen.
The ...
thrown game
In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...
; this match therefore remains, as of 2022, the largest victory margin in a competitive game.
The referee for this match was Dave Stormont.
Background
Arbroath were drawn against Bon Accord in the first round of the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Gayfield.
Although Arbroath were only founded seven years earlier in 1878, they were already vastly more experienced than Bon Accord who were only a year old. Some sources state that Bon Accord were really Orion Cricket Club, who had received the entry confirmation from the Scottish FA instead of Orion FC. However, in reality Bon Accord had been formed in 1884 as a bona fide football club, while Orion FC were not formed until October 1885, well after the opening rounds of the Scottish Cup had been played.
"Bon Accord" was used to commemorate the watchword that initiated the storming of the Castle of Aberdeen during the
Wars of Scottish Independence
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of ...
. At the time, any Scottish-based team could enter the Cup without any previous experience.
A record-breaking game
Bon Accord are said to have arrived for the match without any form of standard football kit, a portent of what was to follow. With the teams being so mismatched, it was likely that Arbroath would win easily, but even in those days when high scoring games were common the result was unprecedented.
Arbroath were 15–0 up by half time, and scored another 21 goals in the second half. The ''Scottish Athletic Journal'' at the time wrote ''The leather was landed between the posts 41 times, but five of the times were disallowed. Here and there, enthusiasts would be seen scoring sheet and pencil in hand, taking note of the goals as one would score runs at a cricket match."''A day when Scottish football scorched the record books The Scotsman, retrieved 14 July 2007. Archived fro the original on 27 March 2008. Referee Dave Stormont later claimed that had he taken a harder line with the Aberdeen team, Arbroath could have won 43–0. Stormont said: ''My only regret was that I chalked off seven goals, for while they may have looked doubtful from an offside point of view, so quickly did the Maroons carry the ball from midfield, and so close and rapid was their passing, that it was very doubtful whether they could be offside''. Other reports claim only 4 goals were chalked off. It was claimed that Arbroath goalkeeper Jim Milne Sr did not touch the ball in the entire game and spent the whole of the match sheltering
from the rain under a spectator's umbrella.
The 18-year-old
John Petrie
John Petrie (15 January 1822 – 8 December 1892) was a Scottish-born politician,
architect, stonemason and building contractor in Brisbane who became the city's first Mayor.
Private life
John Petrie was born 15 January 1822Toowong Cemetery ...
scored 13 goals, still the record for most goals scored in a senior tournament, although it was equalled by
Archie Thompson
Archie Gerald Thompson (born 23 October 1978) is an Australian former professional association football, footballer. He also is serving as a club ambassador for Melbourne Victory FC.
Born in New Zealand, Thompson played youth football at the N ...
when
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
beat
American Samoa
American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the International ...
2002 World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...
.
The unfortunate Bon Accord goal keeper on the day was Andrew Lornie.
Concurrent Dundee Harp match
On the same day, 18 miles (29 kilometres) away in
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
, Dundee Harp were also playing in the first round of the Scottish Cup against Aberdeen Rovers. Dundee Harp beat Aberdeen Rovers 35–0. The referee noted 37 goals, but Harp's secretary suggested a miscount must have occurred as he had recorded only 35. The match official, acknowledging it was difficult for him to keep accurate details during such a deluge of goals, accepted the lower tally and wired the official score of 35–0 to the
Scottish Football Association
The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...
headquarters.
Bon Accord and Rovers had played each other the previous February, Bon Accord winning 5-3.
Aftermath
In the following rounds of the Scottish Cup, Arbroath beat local rivals
Forfar Athletic
Forfar Athletic Football Club are a Scottish semi-professional football club from the town of Forfar, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League and currently play in Scottish League Two. They play their home games a ...
9–1 in the second round and Dundee East End 7–1 in the third round before losing 5–3 to Hibernian in the fourth round, scoring a total of 55 goals in that season's Scottish Cup. Bon Accord did win a Cup tie in 1891-92, beating Stonehaven 8-0 away in the first round, but wound up at the end of the season.
To celebrate the historic achievement of the scoreline, the Angus MSPAndrew Welsh tabled a motion in the
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...
in 2000.
In December 2000 Romanian side Carpati Mirsa beat Avintul Dirlos 41–0, but the result was not ratified as it was not in a professional competition, so Arbroath maintained their record. A similar situation arose in May 2016, when Pelileo Sporting Club beat Indi Native 44–1 in an Ecuadorian third division match.
On 31 October 2002, the Malagasy club
AS Adema
AS ADEMA is a Malagasy football club based in Antananarivo, Madagascar. They have won the THB Champions League championship on three occasions, in 2002, 2006 and 2012. In 2002 they also advanced to the quarterfinals of the CAF Cup before losing t ...
beat SO l'Emyrne149–0 in the national championship; while this has been claimed as the record for highest victory margin in a senior football competition, SOE intentionally scored own goals throughout the match as a protest to a refereeing decision in a prior match, meaning Arbroath holds the record margin of victory for a ''contested'' match in senior football.
On March 2012, amateur team Wheel Power F.C. won 58–0 against Nova 2010 F.C. to become the largest victory in British football; this eclipsed Illogan Reserves' 55–0 victory against Madron F.C. in the Cornish
Mining League
The Mining League (last sponsored by One and All Sports) was a football league competition based in Cornwall, England, UK, with three divisions. The First Division sat at level 13 of the English football league system, and the winning team coul ...
in November 2010.
On 2 August 2020, in the regional level of Polish Cup in
Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...
, TPS II Winogrady beat Big Show FC 46–0, which is the record in official competition in Poland.