ON THIS DAY

Brothers playing in the same senior team is a bit of a rarity and far rarer still if the brothers are identical twins. When Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson took his side to play Peterborough United in a pre-season friendly in August 2008 there was a family connection with Peterborough's manager being Alex's son, Darren Ferguson. There was a family connection in the Manchester United side as well with the match seeing the debuts of Brazilian brothers Rafael and Fábio da Silva - and they were identical twins! The story goes that the only way Sir Alex could tell the difference between the two was that Fabio wore a wedding ring - but of course the brothers would often swap the ring around to fool the boss! Trouble came their way though on this day in 2009 when United visited Barnsley in a League Cup 4th Round encounter. Late on both brothers challenged Jamal Campbell-Ryce with referee Chris Foy booking Fábio for foul play. However television replays showed that it was Rafael who should have been yellow carded and an appeal to the FA followed which saw the correct brother having a yellow card transferred to his disciplinary record from the innocent brother.

England’s men suffered their worst defeat in Hungary but on this day in 2005 England’s womens team achieved their record victory – 13-0 away to Hungary in a qualifying match for the Women’s World Cup finals of 2007. Eight England players got their names on the scoresheet in the match with Kelly Smith scoring a hat-trick.