The Golden Goal Prospect In 1946

The 1945-46 Season saw the re-introduction of the FA Cup competition. It was agreed that every Round up to and including the Quarter Finals, would be played over two legs. The campaign commenced with a 6-2 victory at Barnet and was then followed by a 2-1 win at Loftus Road. In Round Two, the R’s beat Ipswich Town convincingly 4-0 at home and 2-0 at Portman Road. Rangers were then drawn against Crystal Palace in the 3rd Round. A crowd of 20,080 saw a 0-0 draw in the first leg at Loftus Road. The second game was also goalless but because the weather was so bad, the match was abandoned with just a few minutes of extra time remaining. It was agreed that the score would stand and the replay would be played at a neutral ground.

Craven Cottage was the venue and the match kicked off at 2pm on Wednesday 16th January 1946. The front cover of the programme interestingly states: ‘Should the game still remain a draw after 90 minutes play, an extra 10 minutes each way shall be played. If the position remains the same at the end of extra time, the game must be continued and the first goal scored will determine the winner and also terminate the match.’ This rule wasn’t needed as the R’s won the game 1-0. Bert Addinall scored the goal and 23,000 attended the match. The team lined up as follows: Brown, Rose, Jefferson, Daniels, Ridyard, Farrow, Blizzard, Mallett, Addinall, Stock, Pattison. QPR then played Southampton in the 4th Round and won the first leg 1-0 followed by a 4-3 victory at Loftus Road. The R’s were then drawn against local rivals Brentford in the 5th Round but unfortunately went down 3-1 at home and could only manage a goalless draw at Griffin Park.

programme.jpg

Apparently, the first known use of the ‘golden goal’ rule was many years earlier during the Final of the Cromwell Cup at Bramall Lane in 1868, although the term ‘golden goal’ was never used. Since the rule change by FIFA in 1993, the first ‘golden goal’ was scored by Australia in a Quarter Final match in the World Youth Championships, then in 1994 when Huddersfield beat Lincoln City and also in the 1996 Euro Final when Germany defeated the Czech Republic etc etc. There was also the ‘silver goal’ rule as well for a while of course !!!

Thanks to Brian Russell for the loan of the programme.

Steve Russell

7 thoughts on “The Golden Goal Prospect In 1946

  1. Steve ..My Father an ardent Fulham Supporter remembers that game v Palace

    In those days “neutrals” actually went to games..No TV and very little radio coverage.

    There were some Army uniforms on the terraces so I’m told..Well that makes a change from replica shirts lol

    Great Read

  2. Steve,
    I was having a look through my collection for 1945/6 to make sure that my copy of the programme was as good as Brian’s (which it was) when I came across this.
    It would seem that there was indeed a match that very year where the ‘golden goal’ was used. Near the end of the season QPR were still very much involved with the Division 3 (S) Cup and were to play Bournemouth in the semi finals. QPR managed a 1-1 draw at Dean Court but lost 0-1 at home and it’s this particular defeat that was by a ‘golden goal’. Interestingly the four page programme does not state what would happen in the event of the match being tied. In my copy of the programme, the previous owner has indicated that the game ended 0-0 besides both teams and then a further 0-0 in brackets (could this possibly be half time or extra time?) BUT he has also written that the winning goal was scored in the 146th minute! This indeed suggests that it was a case of ‘next goal wins’.
    The programmes/handbook for the following season does not mention that the game was decided in this way but as the final against Bristol Rovers at Stamford Bridge was only a few days away there would not have been time for a replay to be arranged.

  3. Thanks for the info Bernard
    That’s interesting Moreno…and the Final was at Stamford Bridge.Do you know if there were any more home fixtures after that one mate ? As you know the Reserve programmes included brief reports.
    Otherwise, I might contact Bournemouth.
    Thanks mate

  4. Steve I have a fixture list for the season and it ends with the Bournemouth game. Somewhat confusingly it is the Division Three South (North) Cup!
    I have the Clapton Orient prog for the 22/4 game but that makes no mention of other games to be played.

  5. Steve, there were two further reserve team fixtures BUT they are just single sheets with little more than the team line ups and nothing else!
    I’ve checked the books by ‘official historian’ Gordon Macey and there’s nothing in there to suggest it was a ‘golden goal’, just that we lost the match 1-0.
    Programme collectors often don’t like writing inside their collection but it does go to show that quite often very useful information can be gleaned.

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