Big scorelines and bad mistakes

Life is all about good and bad decisions and, just like Grant McCann whose Hull City team got walloped 8-0 at Wigan earlier this evening, when it comes to football then I've also made plenty of bad decisions.

As someone who is more accustomed to seeing a dull 0-0 stalemate than an enthralling thrill-a-minute spectacle which everyone remembers for years afterwards, there's been plenty of occasions where I've been in the right area geographically to see a classic but, instead, have missed it.

Fir Park: Where the most goals were scored in a Scottish Premiership game (but I wasn't there). 

Most memorably, in May 2010, the night before David Cameron joined forces with Nick Clegg to form a Con-Lib Government, there I was in Scotland on my way to see a game though, having a free rail travel pass at that time, I hadn't quite decided where to go. Ultimately, I plumped for Aberdeen vs Kilmarnock in a 'must win' game for the visitors. They succeeded, winning 2-1, but that same night in another top flight game, Motherwell drew 6-6 with Hibernian - something which, to this day, is a Scottish Premiership record for the most goals scored in a game.

Eighteen months later I was in Scotland again (and still hadn't learned my lesson) as I trotted off to watch St Mirren this time. They beat Dunfermline, 2-1, though it finished 4-4 in their next meeting in Paisley later that season. Another option that rainy day was Aidrieonians and I really should have gone there instead because they smashed Gala Fairydean, 11-0, in the Scottish Cup.

Another 'elusive' 4-4 draw (as it's a scoreline which I've seen only the once despite attending 988 games in the UK) was in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in the 2006/07 season. I was in two minds about whether to go to Chesterfield's old Saltergate Ground to see them play Chester. I decided not to - due to the crap and cold winter weather and, well, the rest is history...

Field Mill: The only place I've seen a 4-4 draw.

A few years later when Wigan were in the Premier League, a good way of being able to get to a lot of Premier League games/grounds was to 'follow' them away from home because, like Bolton nowadays, they never sell-out. Having had fleeting thoughts about going to see the Latics at Tottenham in the winter (they lost 9-1), I almost inexplicably decided not to go to their final day clash away at Chelsea when they slumped to a marginally-better 8-0 defeat this time.

Although I saw many high-scoring games in my three-and-a-bit years working at Mansfield Town, there were two games which clashed with other commitments in the 2011/12 season - a 7-0 win over Barrow and then a 6-3 success at Alfreton just three days later.

Thankfully, I've been to several games where there has been plenty of goals and many of these encounters have been clustered together in quick succession.

My personal record for 'most goals seen in a game' is nine - a feat which occurred three times in 2013 and involved Mansfield on each occasion. Two were successful; the first being an 8-1 hammering of Barrow (who'd lost 7-0 at Field Mill the previous season) whilst the other was by the same score away at St Albans City in the FA Cup First Round. Nevertheless, the third occasion, which was just a fortnight after that cup clash, was a 5-4 reverse at Fleetwood where the Cod Army scored inside both the first and last 20 seconds of the game. The 'Captain Pugwash' goal music with that stupid dancing fish on the big screen at Highbury still gives me nightmares to this day!

Rovers line-up to face Chorley... before smashing them to bits!

Fleetwood actually kick-started a run of high-scoring games in 2018/19 when they romped to a 5-0 win at Scunthorpe - a performance from the hosts which was on a par with Hull's inexcusably pathetic showing at Wigan and got their manager the sack. Only a matter of weeks later I witnessed West Ham smash Macclesfield, 8-0, in the Carling Cup or whatever its called nowadays, before there was a 7-0 as Doncaster trounced Chorley in their FA Cup First Round replay at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Unfortunately, there was no 6-0, though I did have fleeting thoughts about going to a game which ended 9-0; this being Manchester City versus Burton Albion at the Etihad Stadium. I didn't attend and, well, the floodgates were well and truly opened (again).

And finally, only last year in the same competition, my brothers, nieces and nephews all got tickets to see Liverpool vs Arsenal at Anfield. The score? Liverpool 5, Arsenal 5. Why wasn't I invited?

West Ham: Where I've seen my biggest ever winning margin!

Maybe there will be one day that I'll be at a game where there is actually 10 goals in a game (to break my personal record) but for now these are my highest-ever scoring games...

1. Mansfield Town 8-1 Barrow (9th February, 2013)

2. St Albans City 1-8 Mansfield Town (9th November, 2013)

3. Fleetwood Town 5-4 Mansfield Town (23rd November, 2013)

4. Annan Athletic 3-5 Stirling Albion (10th May, 2014)

5. Whitehawk 5-3 Lincoln City (8th November, 2015)

6. Atletico Madrid 7-1 Granada (15th October, 2016)

7. Mansfield Town 4-4 Accrington Stanley (14th February, 2017)

8. West Ham United 8-0 Macclesfield Town (26th September, 2018)

9. Brentford 4-3 Doncaster Rovers (10th August, 2004)

10. Barnsley 2-5 Doncaster Rovers (18th October, 2005)

11. Doncaster Rovers 4-3 Scunthorpe United (24th April, 2010)

12. Chesterfield 5-2 Accrington Stanley (2nd November, 2010)

13. Mansfield Town 5-2 Darlington (21st February, 2012)

14. Doncaster Rovers 3-4 Portsmouth (14th April, 2012)

15. Mansfield Town 3-4 Newport County (11th August, 2012)

16. Barcelona 6-1 Celta Vigo (14th February, 2016)

17. PSV Eindhoven 4-3 Heerenveen (22nd January, 2017)

18. Steaua Bucharest 7-0 Poli Timisoara (22nd October, 2017)

19. Porto 5-2 Monaco (6th December, 2017)

20. AFC Flyde 5-2 Tranmere Rovers (1st January, 2018)

21. Doncaster Rovers 7-0 Chorley (20th November, 2018)