England football international wins chess tournament.

[David Fowler]

I share Leonard's joy at Crystal Palace's success against the Etihasbeens, despite being more of a Wycombe Wanderers man myself. As well as scoring the winning goal, and winning the online celeb chess tournament the other week, Eberechi Eze was loaned out to Wycombe a few years ago and helped them gain promotion from the fourth tier.

Mention of CPFC brings to mind my favourite sporting headline of all time - "Queen in Brawl at Palace" - when Gerry Queen was sent off at Selhurst Park, in the early 1970s.

'Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious' from 2000 wasn't bad either! Both came in useful when teaching English lessons on newspaper reports and headline writing.

[Matt Mackenzie]

The same paper also gave us the more basic, but still memorable "Swedes 2, Turnips 1".

(followed a year later by "Yanks 2, Planks 0")

[Paul Habershon]

Mention of CPFC brings to mind my favourite sporting headline of all time - "Queen in Brawl at Palace" - when Gerry Queen was sent off at Selhurst Park, in the early 1970s.

'Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious' from 2000 wasn't bad either! Both came in useful when teaching English lessons on newspaper reports and headline writing.

On the way to get my Sunday Times yesterday I thought the obvious headline would be 'Eze Does It'. I was right. There it was on the front page.

[Ronnie Burton]

Well done to Palace on beating Man City. Henderson should have been sent off. He had outstanding game and could be England number one goalkeeper now

[MJMcCready]

Im not sure Palace would have won if he had been sent off.

[Geoff Chandler]

But I really want to know....whether a team finishing one place above the relegation zone in any football league, has ever had a positive goal difference.

Not sure if this is what you are after but here is a strange stat regarding goal difference and relegation.
Manchester City in 1937/38. They were relegated from Div. 1 but scored more goals than any other team in the league. (the previous season they won the league!) http://www.englishfootballstats.co.uk/L ... 937-38.htm

Funny old game.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Im not sure Palace would have won if he had been sent off.

Obvious statement is obvious.

But let's be honest here, few really care because it was 115 Charges FC who lost out.

And they have benefited from similar largesse plenty of times before.

[Mick Norris]

Back on topic, I gather Eze scored again last night, chess doesn't seem to be harming his football

Maybe he would like to be ECF President

[MJMcCready]

Be good for publicity

[NickFaulks]

But I really want to know .... whether a team finishing one place above the relegation zone in any football league, has ever had a positive goal difference.

Moot now.

[Alistair Campbell]

But I really want to know .... whether a team finishing one place above the relegation zone in any football league, has ever had a positive goal difference.

Moot now.

It hasn’t happened as much as I thought.

The only example I can find in the English senior divisions is that of Everton in 1921/22 in the top division.

Relegation with a positive goal difference is slightly more common.

Manchester City from the first division in season 1937/38 (slightly surprised no-one had mentioned this…)
Sheffield United in 1980/81 from Division 3.
Also Wigan in 2019/20 from the Championship, although they had suffered a points deduction.

In Scotland we have

Morton in 1948/48 in Division A
Partick Thistle in 1978/79 (SPL)
Morton in 1996/97 (First Division)

Also Dunfermline finished second bottom with a positive GD in the First Division in 2012/13 and were relegated via the playoffs (but had suffered a points deduction).
And Alloa had a positive GD in 93/94 in Division 2 but started the next season in Division 3 after reconstruction - you could argue this constitutes a relegation.

I’ll not mention 2011/12.

[NickFaulks]

Relegation with a positive goal difference is slightly more common.

Manchester City from the first division in season 1937/38 (slightly surprised no-one had mentioned this…)

Just looked that up, they actually scored the most goals in the division! That must be rare.

[Paul Habershon]

Relegation with a positive goal difference is slightly more common.

Manchester City from the first division in season 1937/38 (slightly surprised no-one had mentioned this…)

Just looked that up, they actually scored the most goals in the division! That must be rare.

Those were the days when ties on points were decided by goal average not goal difference. This meant dividing goals for by goals against. Thus strong defence conceding few goals was a big advantage. Illustrating this with an extreme case: scoring 25 goals for v 2 goals against is a goal average of 12.5 whereas scoring 99 goals v 33 against is only 3.0. I learned long division at the age of six when running my own football league with dice, an early version of fantasy football.

Goal difference encourages attacking play, as did the introduction of three points for a win instead of the former two points.

[MJMcCready]

Relegation with a positive goal difference is slightly more common.

Manchester City from the first division in season 1937/38 (slightly surprised no-one had mentioned this…)

Just looked that up, they actually scored the most goals in the division! That must be rare.

Those were the days when ties on points were decided by goal average not goal difference. This meant dividing goals for by goals against. Thus strong defence conceding few goals was a big advantage. Illustrating this with an extreme case: scoring 25 goals for v 2 goals against is a goal average of 12.5 whereas scoring 99 goals v 33 against is only 3.0. I learned long division at the age of six when running my own football league with dice, an early version of fantasy football.

Goal difference encourages attacking play, as did the introduction of three points for a win instead of the former two points.

I imagine the latter changed football quite a bit.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Maybe "a lot" is overstating it, the number of goals scored did increase in the first few seasons after the change - but not massively.