“Due to renovations at Ibrox, Rangers could reach the League Cup final by playing every game at Hampden Park,” notes David Shannon. “Has a club ever won a domestic cup playing every game at the same ground?” Reuben, a Dutchman, gets in touch: “The final of the KNVB Beker has been played at Stadion Feyenoord (De Kuip) in Rotterdam for almost four decades. Feyenoord can reach the final by only playing home matches – there are no matches on neutral ground, no two-legged-ties and home teams are determined by draw. Actually, the last two times that Feyenoord won the KNVB Beker – 2018 and 2024, the latter under Arne Slot – they did not play any match outside their own stadium. “I don’t think this has happened in any ‘big five’ European country; the Copa del Rey and Coppa Italia have two-legged-ties before the final, the finals of the FA Cup (Wembley) and Coupe de France (Stade de France) are not played in the home stadium of any club team. Germany’s DFB-Pokal plays their final at the venue of Hertha BSC (Olympiastadion), but Hertha have never lifted the trophy.” Sorry to interrupt, Ruben, but we have to chime in with the tale of Hertha Berlin Amateure, Hertha’s reserve team, who made it to the DFB-Pokal final in 1993. Hertha II, as they are now known, didn’t leave Berlin during their run but only played the semi-final and final (which they lost 1-0 to Leverkusen) at the Olympiastadion. “The final of the DFB-Pokal was not always in Berlin,” resumes Reuben. “In 1983, the final was held in Cologne between finalists FC Köln and Fortuna Köln. The winners were FC Köln, who played only home matches on their way to the final. However, they did not play their first round match at their own stadium but rather in a smaller stadium in Cologne.” So, Cologne but no cigar. Across the Atlantic: “The home team in the US Open Cup is decided by draw for every round, including the final, meaning any team can win the cup with only matches in their own stadium. This has happened three times: Chicago Fire in 2006, Houston Dynamo in 2018 and Orlando City in 2022.” Plus: “Pohang Steelers won the Korean FA Cup in 2012 and had home advantage in all five rounds including the final. That’s a start,” concludes Reuben, rather modestly. Sean DeLoughry next: “Almost every Rock Cup in Gibraltar has had all games played at the Victoria Stadium. And in Ireland, Bohemians won the 1928 FAI Cup beating Cobh Ramblers, St James’s Gate, Shelbourne and Drumcondra with all six games played at their home ground, the national stadium, Dalymount Park. Also, for a period, the League Cup final in Ireland was played at the home of one of the finalists, drawn at random. In 2013, Shamrock Rovers won the League Cup without leaving Tallaght. In 2010, Sligo won the League Cup with an entirely home run at the Showgrounds to lift the trophy. In 2006, Derry City beat each of Longford, Drogheda, Limerick and Shelbourne at home, without conceding a goal.” Bob Cheval chimes in with a Caledonian answer: “Sadly Rangers won’t even be the first Scottish team to achieve this. The first ever Scottish Cup in 1873 saw Queen’s Park emerge as victors playing every game at the original Hampden Park.” Bob also adds, as had Reuben: “This was also achieved multiple times in the early years of the Copa del Rey as the format was a round-robin group with all matches played at the same ground. Due to a spat between groups of clubs, there were two separate Copa del Rey competitions in 1910, both round-robin formats at a single ground. So two clubs – Athletic and Barcelona - managed to achieve winning the same domestic cup whilst only playing at a single (albeit different) ground in a single season.” Swings and misses “Sheffield Wednesday won their opening league game 4-0, then lost their second by the same score. What’s the biggest swing between an opening-game win and a defeat in the next league match?” asks Andrew Wilson. Stephan Wijnen proffers a recent answer: “In this season’s Dutch first division Jong AZ won their first match 6-0 at home against Roda JC, but then lost 6-0 away at Den Bosch four days later. Chris Lowe has a decent answer, actually: “Aston Villa’s 1925 season opened with a 10-0 win and then they followed that up with a 0-3 reverse for a 13-goal swing. There are two recent occurrences from the Premier League, both in the same 2010 season where Blackpool started 4-0 (v Wigan), 0-6 (v Arsenal) and Aston Villa started 3-0 (v West Ham), 0-6 (v Newcastle).” Colourful team selections “The north London derby next month is likely to feature Ben White v Archie Gray,” writes Rudy. “Which makes me wonder, which fixture has had the most colours for surnames on the team sheet?” Offers Rob Huggett: “If we are allowing bench players then my team Leeds, during one of our many banter years, had a multi-coloured bench of (Paul) Green, (Aidy) White, (Michael) Brown and (Andy) Gray for a 1-0 home defeat against Birmingham in October 2013. No doubt, manager Neil Warnock added plenty of colourful language.” Plenty more to come here, surely? Mail us or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU. Knowledge archive Mark Norman-Nicholls recently asked: “The Champions League qualifier between Ludogorets and Qarabag went in to extra-time 4-4 on aggregate (2-3 on the night) only for Qarabag to score four goals in the added 30 minutes to go through 8-4. It got me wondering about the biggest margins of extra-time victory.” We first took a look at this topic back in 2005, prompted by Asker’s 4-0 (aet) win over Strømmen in the Norwegian Women’s Cup final, which was 0-0 after 90 minutes. Staying in Norway, Nils Ragnar Løvhaug nominates the third-round men’s Cup clash between Tromsø and Tromsdalen in 1996. “The score was 3-3 after 90 minutes, but Tromsø went on to win 8-3 after extra-time, with Birmingham flop Sigurd Rushfeldt scoring five goals.” You can find more information on the game here. Rugby Town were on the receiving end of an even greater added-time thrashing with a cruel twist. In their 2004 Southern League Cup third-round tie with Sutton Coldfield, Rugby led 2-0 after 89 minutes; when the final whistle blew it was 2-2. Rugby, fielding a host of youth team players and reserves, continued the capitulation by conceding a further six in extra-time to lose 8-2. “The heads dropped and their legs went in extra-time,” admitted Rugby boss Tony Dobson afterwards. Any advances since? Can you help? “Preston North End sacked Ryan Lowe after one league game of this season,” writes Sam Coare. “His interim replacement Mike Marsh left after their second league game, replaced by new boss Paul Heckingbottom. This will mean that three different men will have taken charge of the team’s opening three league matches. Surely that must be a first?” Luka Barisic asks: “Hoffenheim’s Andrej Kramaric ended the previous Bundesliga edition with a hat-trick against Bayern and welcomed Holstein Kiel into the league with another treble. How many players have bridged two seasons in this way?” Henry Manuel wants to know: “Chelsea currently own four out of the top 10 most expensive transfers of all time – João Felix, Enzo Fernández, Moisés Caicedo and Romelu Lukaku. Has any team ever owned more than this at the same time?” “When Carlisle United defeated Barrow 1-0 in their opening home fixture on 17 August, it was their first Saturday home win in almost a year, the previous being a 2-0 victory over Shrewsbury back on 2 September 2023,” notes Mike Kilner. “Which was the last side to have a longer home drought?