ON THIS DAY

Scunthorpe fans Richard and Tracey Bailey were two of the crowd at the 3rd Division encounter between Cambridge United and Scunthorpe played on 13th February 1999. And it started a bit of a run for the married couple. Over 18 years later, on 18th November 2017, they were down at Northampton to witness a 3-0 Scunthorpe victory in a League 1 match and they made the headlines having attended 1000 consecutive matches played by Scunthorpe United since that match at Cambridge United. They hadn't missed a single one although a motorway closure on the long trip down for a fixture at Bournemouth did involve some spectacular driving in order to arrive on time. What's even more amazing is that they didn't live in Scunthorpe, their home was in Derby which is 75 miles from Scunthorpe! That meant that they travelled around 70,000 miles just to get to the home matches and back in those 1000 fixtures! The couple were later presented with '1000' club shirts to commemorate that magnificent achievement.

The Republic of Ireland were eliminated from the World Cup in the most controversial of circumstances. All square during extra time of their play off second leg against France in Paris Thierry Henry handled the ball twice before passing to William Gallas who headed the ball into the net. The 'goal' was allowed and France had won their place in the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Thierry Henry was widely branded as a cheat but attempts to get the match replayed were rejected by FIFA. In June 2015 it emerged that FIFA had made a €5million payment to the FA of Ireland to prevent any legal action being taken against them over the incident.

After an impressive run of 25 undefeated Premier League League matches on the trot (13 at the end of 1994/95, 12 at the start of 1995/96) Nottingham Forest were hoping that their successful days were back. Then on this day they lost 7-0 against Premier League champions Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park!

In their first season in the Football League Chelsea were forced to play in the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup. The fixture congestion that caused saw the Londoners have to play two matches in one day. On 18th November 1905 Chelsea's first team beat Burnley 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in the Second Division while their reserves lost 7-1 at Southern League Crystal Palace in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup. That is still the worst defeat suffered by a League side against a non-league team in the FA Cup.