Literary footballing combos.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

"I'm sure I heard a radio feature recently that claimed a Hearts squad in the 1990s boasted players called Holmes, Watson and Moriarty!" declares Daryl Vodden, "Is this true? And are there any other examples of literary footballing combos?"

Alas, Daryl, it seems you either misheard the radio report or you listen to a station staffed by unscrupulous mythmongers. While it's true that both a Derek Holmes and an Andy Watson have turned out for the Jambos, they weren't at the club at the same time. And neither The Knowledge nor the kindly folk we talked to at Tynecastle could find any record of a Moriarty having been on their books around then. Holmes, for what it's worth, played for Hearts from 1995 to 1999 before leaving to join Cowdenbeath. He's now at Carlisle. Watson left Tynecastle in 1994 and is now Alex McLeish's right-hand man at Rangers, though not for much longer.

As for other literary combos, Richard Franks points out that numbers 2, 3 and 4 in the Mexico squad for the 2002 World Cup were worn by Messrs Gabriel (de Anda), (Rafael) Garcia and (Rafael) Marquez respectively. Unfortunately our readers couldn't come up with any other examples, although Simon Peck did brazenly attempt to stretch the point by drawing our attention to the fact that Port Vale's strikeforce in the 1982/83 season was (Bob) Newton & (John) Ridley - which happens to be the name of the brewery in Coronation Street. Exactly.

SPRECHEN SIE FOOTBALL?

"My friend insists there is a specific German word for the goal that takes a team from being 2-0 down to 2-1 down," says Sam Hall, "Does this word exist and what is it?"

Your mate is almost spot on, Sam. "AnschluAntreffer" is the score that reduces a side's deficit to just one goal - so not only does it apply to the one that takes a team from being 2-0 down to 2-1 down, but also to the goal that makes it 3-2 rather than 3-1, 4-3 instead of 4-2, etc.