Has a football team ever finished on zero points without a deduction? | Football

“Sheffield Wednesday finished their Championship season on zero points, accumulating 18 points throughout their 46-game season after being handed an 18-point deduction for severe financial mismanagement,” notes Michael Butler. “But has any team finished on zero points simply because they lost every league game?”

There are many instances of teams finishing on zero points (with deductions), but one really has to delve deep to find those teams unfortunate enough to lose every single match in a full season. Even Fort William, famously branded as the “worst football team in Britain” after going 840 days and 73 matches without a win in 2019, managed to dig out a couple of draws in those seasons.

Our first answer is Antigua Barracuda and their record-breaking season in 2013, in which they played 26, lost 26 in the United Soccer League (USL) – then the third tier in the US. We did cover this a few years ago, so do read this article in full. Despite the players and staff not being paid, having to walk to games in LA because they couldn’t afford hire cars and taking 10-hour minivan drives through the night, the Barracuda’s tale is oddly inspiring.

Woodford United’s story is a little less heartening. Playing in Southern League Division One Central – the eighth tier of English football, or Step Four of non-league – back in 2012-13, Woodford lost all 42 league matches. With the budget slashed to almost nothing, manager (and former Yeovil Town striker) Howard Forinton fled along with many of his players, with youth-team coaches drafted in to coach largely youth-team players. Results did not improve, but Woodford’s remaining players kept plugging away without pay or expenses, the club determined to avoid a hefty fine for pulling out of the Southern League. Woodford finished the season with a record 185 goals conceded and just 21 for, losing all 42 league matches.

Further down the pyramid, Longford AFC made headlines in 2015-16 after signing former England international Stuart Pearce, then 53 years of age and a year after being sacked as Nottingham Forest manager, in a bid to arrest their dreadful season in Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two. Longford didn’t score a single goal that season until January, but Pearce did make a (single) appearance, coming on as a substitute for Longford’s 1-0 defeat by Wotton Rovers in March of that year after admitting he was “woefully short of fitness” but failed to have the desired impact: Longford lost all 30 matches in that campaign.

It wasn’t a great look for the Gibraltar Premier Division in 2013-14, their first season since being accepted by Uefa, as Gibraltar Phoenix lost all 14 games and were promptly relegated to the second tier.

In 2006, Grêmio Barueri played in the Campeonato Paulista, the top-flight division in São Paulo. But a decade later, despite playing in a 31,000-seater stadium in the third tier, Barueri lost all 19 of their matches.

There are two recent examples of pointless seasons in women’s football, with Glasgow Women FC (not to be confused with Scottish giants Glasgow City) enduring a torrid 2022-23 season in the Scottish Women’s Premier League, scoring just six goals during 22 defeats. Billericay Town sustained a similar fate in this season’s Women’s National League Southern Premier Division, the third tier of English football.

Things got so bad for Yeni Malatyaspor last season in the second tier of Turkish football that the president applied to withdraw the club from the league, only to see that application rejected by the Turkish Football Federation. Sahin Altinok then resigned his presidency as Malatyaspor were forced to see out the season, as they struggled with “large debt”, losing all 38 matches. “We could not find a single person willing to take ownership of our club,” said Altinok in a parting statement. “Our only wish is for our team to overcome these difficult times and return to its glorious days.”

Young guns

“Max Dowman’s goal for Arsenal against Everton in March felt meaningful but has a 16-year-old ever scored an actual trophy-clinching goal? And if not, who is the youngest player to do so?” asks George Jones.

Let’s start with a goal we mentioned in last week’s Knowledge. Arsenal’s Ray Kennedy was only 19 years 279 days old when his late goal at White Hart Lane won the league championship for Arsenal in 1971.

Johan Neeskens, the heartbeat of the great Ajax and Netherlands teams of the 1970s, scored the winner against Sparta Rotterdam in the 1971 KNVB Cup final, his first season at Ajax. He was 19 years 247 days old.

As any Champions League obsessive knows, there is a more famous case from Ajax. “He might not be the youngest overall but Patrick Kluivert scored the winning goal in the 1995 Champions League final against Milan at the tender age of 18 years 327 days,” writes Lorcan O’Neill. “Surely the youngest player in a final of that calibre.”

Charlton’s Eni Aluko was 18 years 70 days old when she scored the only goal of their 2005 FA Cup final against Everton. Derek Johnstone was even younger when he settled an Old Firm final. “Johnstone scored the only goal of the 1970 League Cup final win for Rangers over Celtic aged 16,” writes Ross Kidd. “Later the same season, by which time he was 17, Johnstone scored Rangers goal in 1-1 draw in the 1971 Scottish Cup Final also vs Celtic aged 17. Rangers lost the replay 2-1.”

Johnston’s exact age when he scored that goal was 16 years 355 days. He, Aluko, Kluivert, Neeskens and Kennedy scored trophy-winning goals in the purest sense of the phrase*. But as Chai from Atalanta points out, 17-year-old Pelé’s first goal in the 1958 World Cup final would have been enough to win the World Cup for Brazil. It put them 3-1 up against Sweden in a match they have eventually won 5-2.

* by scoring the final goal in a single-goal victory

More late title-winning goals

In last week’s Knowledge we looked at some of the latest title-winning goals ever scored. Plenty more examples appeared in our inbox. Before we get to them, an apology to Dundee striker Albert Kidd, who we misidentified as a St Mirren player when referencing his goals against Hearts on the final day of the 1985-86 season.

Knowledge archive

“Last weekend, Huesca beat Zaragoza 1-0 in a game which included both goalkeepers being sent off,” writes Justin Horton. “I guess this must have happened before but I can’t recall any specific examples. Can your readers do better?”

They already have, back in 2023 when we had a similar question after both keepers were sent off in a match between Genoa and Milan. This is what we said back then:

Olivier Giroud: World Cup winner, bicycle kick connoisseur, male model and now … goalkeeper. The Frenchman had a go between the sticks for Milan, following Mike Maignan’s late red card against Genoa at the weekend, and he did pretty well: keeping a clean sheet by bravely diving at the feet of George Puscas to keep Milan top of Serie A, during a wild injury-time period in which the hosts’ goalkeeper Josep Martínez also saw red for a second yellow.

But two red cards for the two starting goalkeepers is not an isolated incident. It’s not even a unique situation in games featuring sides from Milan.

Back now to 28 March 1992 at San Siro, where Torino’s sweeper-keeper Luca Marchegiani was dismissed for handling outside the box before Inter’s Beniamino Abate was also given his marching orders for a reckless last-man challenge on 70 minutes. The game finished 0-0.

Can you help

“Deji Elerewe has won the title with both Bromley (League Two) and Lincoln (League One) this season. Has any other player managed the same feat?” asks Anthony Hall.

“It’s been one hell of a ride for my beloved Bristol Rovers this season,” writes Paul Rudman. “We lost 10 consecutive league games between October and December, a club record, and also won eight in a row in March and April. Has a club over had longer losing and winning runs in the same season?”

“Chelsea faced only one Premier League team, Leeds United, en route to the FA Cup final. Has any team reached the final without facing a top-flight team?” wonders Jeremy Cartwright.

“Just this week, in qualifying for the U17 Asian Women’s Cup, Australia’s 22-0 thumping of the Northern Mariana Islands was rescinded due to Australia fielding an ineligible player, and reversed into a 3-0 defeat for the Aussies. Is this 25-goal swing the most significant change in a match’s outcome as a result of forfeits, rule violations, or other such cases?” asks Luke Levy. “And if so, what is the next biggest reversal of fortunes?”

Will Still and Ed Still were both sacked by Championship sides this season,” notes Nick Richards. “Have two relatives, let alone siblings, been dismissed by clubs in the same league in the same season before?”

In the 2025-26 Ukrainian Premier League U-19, Veres U-19 started playing Epitsentr U-19 at their Veres Training Base,” emails Mykola Kozlenko. “After 41 minutes of play, the game was suspended due to an air raid alert. After an all clear signal, staff discovered debris of a russian drone on the pitch, so everybody moved to the Impuls Stadium a mile away where the game resumed. Has a professional football match ever been resumed on the same day but at a different stadium?”