On This Day in Football: April 21st
Born in the south east of Ireland, Simon put his life-long love of football to good use when he started a successful independent blog in 2010. That opened up an alternative route to a career in journalism, and having had work published across a number of sites and publications, Simon joined the staff at Spotlight Sports Group in 2018.
The history of the beautiful game is heavily dusted with magic moments and iconic events.
In our On This Day in Football feature, we bring together the glorious goals, the cult heroes, the days of despair and the outright bizarre from every day of the year.
Our retrospection pays tribute to the events that mark the game’s history in day-by-day chunks and snippets of information that will give every football supporter their daily hit of football trivia.
Check out today’s listings below:
21st April, 1991 – Yankee pride at Wembley
On 21 April 1991, midfielder John Harkes became the first ever player born in the United States to play in an English cup final at Wembley Stadium.
The New Jersey-born schemer lined up for Second Division Sheffield Wednesday against First Division Manchester United in the League Cup Final before a bumper crowd of 77,612 at the home of football.
The Owls upset the odds to beat United 1-0 on the day thanks to a goal from John Sheridan, and Harkes went on to make history again two years later, becoming the first American to score in a League Cup final, when Wednesday lost 2-1 to Arsenal.
21st April, 2007 – Arsenal take step towards European glory
13 years ago in Sweden, Arsenal Ladies beat host team Umeå IK 1-0 in the first leg of their UEFA Women’s Cup Final.
The Gunners fullback and current pundit Alex Scott scored the decisive goal on the cusp of full-time – a strike that proved to be the only goal scored across both legs.
It was the fourth final appearance in six years for Swedish outfit Umeå, though Arsenal lived up to their billing as favourites by winning the competition in their first final showing.
The Gunners Ladies won a historic quadruple for the club that season, lifting the league title, the FA Women’s Cup, and the FA Women’s Premier League Cup.
UEFA has since rebranded the Women’s Cup as the UEFA Women’s Champions League
Other events of note on April 20th:
1905 Argentine giants Boca Juniors played their first match, beating Mariano Moreno in a friendly, 4-0.
1909 Nottingham Forest inflicted a record defeat on Leicester Fosse when they hammered them 12-0 in Division One. After a subsequent inquiry into the bizarre result, it transpired that the Leicester players had been celebrating a colleague’s wedding just two days before the match.
1917 Kilmarnock beat Celtic 2-0 to end the Glasgow giants’ run of 63 Scottish League matches without a defeat – a record streak for a British club.
1930 Leicester City and Arsenal drew 6-6 in a thrilling Division One encounter. This remains a record draw for the First Division although it was equalled 30 years later as a Football League record when Charlton Athletic and Middlesbrough shared the spoils after an end-to-end 6-6 in a Second Division game in 1960.
1986 West Ham centre-half Alvin Martin scored a rare hat-trick against Newcastle–with each goal coming against a different goalkeeper. Martin scored past Martin Thomas, Chris Hedworth….and Peter Beardsley on an utterly freakish afternoon.
1999 Ian Marshall scores a last-minute winner for Leicester City as the Foxes plunder a shock 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield.
1999 Manchester United, inspired by skipper Roy Keane, come from two down against Juventus in Turin to seal an epic 3-2 Champions League semi final second leg victory, securing their place in the competition’s Final. United went on to win the tournament by beating Bayern Munich 2-1 at the Camp Nou.
2000 Bradford City and Derby County play out a remarkable 4-4 Premier League draw at Valley Parade. Dean Windass fills his boots for the hosts with a superb hattrick.
2007 Lyon clinched their sixth Ligue 1 title on the spin, even though they didn’t play that day. Rennes beat second placed Toulouse, who were already 18-points adrift of the runaway leaders, confirming Lyon as French champions.
2013 Tottenham score three times in seven second half minutes to record a 3-1 turnaround win over Manchester City in North London. Clint Dempsey, Jermaine Defoe and Gareth Bale score in the 75th, 79th and 82nd minutes respectively to break the Citizens’ hearts at White Hart Lane.
2018 West Brom come from two down to snatch a 2-2 draw with Liverpool at the Hawthorns. Late strikes from Jake Livermore and Salomon Rondon cancel out Danny Ings and Mohamed Salah’s openers.
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