“Last month, Jeremy Ngakia found the net twice for Watford against Oxford United to bring his total career goals to three from 116 senior club appearances,” asks a curious fan. “Not counting players who only scored one goal, is there anyone with 100+ appearances managed a higher percentage of their total goals in a single match?”
Denis Boone submits with the story of Matthieu Chalmé. “Defender Chalmé appeared in 362 games during his career, mostly for Lille and Bordeaux,” Denis writes. “He scored four career goals, with three of them coming in a single game. Chalmé netted all three goals in Lille’s victory at Ajaccio in March 2004, recording the most unlikely of hat-tricks.”
Those three well-taken goals in Ajaccio were the sole goals he scored in 179 Lille appearances, while in 167 for Bordeaux, he scored once. Well, twice if you count his self-scored goal in the 2010 League Cup final against Olympique Marseille. Netting three-quarters of his total goals in one game takes Chalmé past Ngakia’s mark (66.7%), but there’s a complication.
Chalmé retired at his club in 2014 after a temporary move at Ajaccio, who presumably recalled his short burst of form a ten years prior. He came back to the game with amateur team his local club, featuring seven times in half a year – and netting once. This reduces his ratio of goals in one match down to three-fifths, but it seems unfair to count against him for a post-retirement jaunt at semi-professional level.
A brief note, too, for a different French defender: the legendary Thuram. Although the query concerns professional club play, many readers emailed in to highlight that Thuram made 142 France appearances and scored two goals in the identical game – the World Cup semi-final against the Croatian team. Sometimes, form is everything.
Previously in this series we examined players who disobeyed their coaches. We have additional great stories, so let’s reopen the Disobedience Records for a second look.
Tottenham v Manchester City, FA Cup semi-final, 1955-56
Tottenham’s skipper, Blanchflower, altered tactics to the team during the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City while they were a goal down,” recalls John Tumbridge. “Moving Norman from centre-half to attack, they ultimately lost and the coach, Anderson [not that one], benched the captain for the following game and removed him of the captaincy. Soon after Anderson was out, Bill Nicholson took over, the captain returned and the rest is history.”
England v Albania, World Cup qualifying, 1989
Adam Clark notes: “Paul Gascoigne scored his first England goal in this 5-0 win at the national stadium after roaming everywhere’, according to coach Robson. The post-match interview are marvellous – a wonderful mixture of annoyance, irony and fatherly pride.”
Everton vs Spurs, Cup semi, the 1990s
The Toffees’ most recent silverware was the 1995 Cup, and it couldn’t have happened without a key figure,” begins a contributor. “Coach Royle? No. Final scorer, Paul Rideout? Almost. Keeper Neville Southall? Not him. That man was unpredictable forward Daniel Amokachi, who came on uninvited during the match with Tottenham, scoring twice to earn the Toffees a spot in the final against Manchester United.”
Recounting the story to the media, Amokachi said: “Rideout got a knock and went down ... I just went to Willie Donachie and said ‘The gaffer says you need me on’.” Royle was rightly angry at the moment, but kinder at the final whistle: “He entered the dressing room and embraced me, gave me his hand and said: ‘Well done, son, but never try that again.’”
Sporting vs Barça, European match, 2008-09
“While playing for Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona against Sporting Lisbon, Henry took it upon himself to change flanks. He quickly scored to give Barcelona the lead at half-time. Guardiola’s reaction? He substituted Henry for ignoring his instructions.”
“As a West Ham fan, I’m increasingly having to look at past seasons for positive memories,” weeps a fan. “While recently doing so, I saw that Dimitri Payet scored six free kicks in the 18 cherished months that we enjoyed him. Just wondering if there is a more productive set-piece expert in a similar time period?”
One comes to mind: David Beckham scored 27 free-kicks in his time at Manchester United, including eight over several months between 2000. His most prolific 18-month spell at the club covers the identical timeframe: from 1999-2000, he netted ten set-pieces – including two raspers against the Hammers. Sorry, Liam.
If it helps, there’s a player currently on West Ham’s books who can better Payet’s statistics: James Ward-Prowse. The set-piece maestro enjoyed two purple patches with his former club, scoring seven free kicks between 2019-2021 across two Covid-affected seasons. He then added six more dead-ball beauties in a 10-month spell between 2022-2023.
“A friend who follows Southend claims the team once featured in a league match at Wembley? Is he joking?” queried Stuart Jacks in April 2012.
Surprisingly, he was correct. Southend were one of two teams – Brentford being the other – to face Orient in Division Three (South) at the stadium back in 1930, owing to stadium renovations at Orient’s Lea Bridge Stadium. Club records takes up the story:
After a game against Torquay United (which the O’s won), Torquay representatives complained about the perimeter fence being too near to the pitch. League officials was duly asked to inspect the ground and agreed that alterations had to be made before further matches could be held; abruptly the club found themselves without a stadium. Hard to believe, Wembley was proposed and the O’s actually hosted two matches in 1930 against Brentford and Southend, securing two victories. Even now the club is the sole league team to have hosted matches at Wembley Stadium!
After that of course, Spurs joined Orient in playing temporarily at the stadium, albeit in the Premier League. In recent weeks, discussions about the Gunners upgrading the Emirates – and relocating to the Wembley while the construction occurs – has surfaced.
“Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored four goals and was red-carded in Gabon’s 4-3 win over the Gambia last week,” notes a reader. “Which other players have been dismissed after scoring at least three goals?”
“During Austria’s huge win of the minnows, every outfield player who began the game got a goal, an assist or both,” asks Paul Savage. “Has any other team achieved this feat?”
“Of all of the players who have a monument outside the ground of their former club, who played the fewest games for that team?” wonders Masai Graham.
“Interestingly, Tomasson is the initial coach to be sacked by {Sw
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