Former England international Stuart Pearce played for Longford AFC during their disastrous 2015-16 campaign in the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two.
The Knowledge: Football
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“Sheffield Wednesday finished their Championship season on zero points, accumulating 18 points throughout their 46-game season after being handed an 18-point deduction for severe financial mismanagement,” notes Michael Butler. “But has any team finished on zero points simply because they lost every league game?”
Many teams have finished on zero points after deductions, but finding those that lost every match in a full season is rare. Even Fort William, famously branded the “worst football team in Britain” after going 840 days and 73 matches without a win in 2019, managed a couple of draws.
Our first answer is Antigua Barracuda and their record-breaking 2013 season in the United Soccer League (USL), the third tier in the US. They played 26 matches and lost all 26. Despite not being paid, walking to games in Los Angeles because they couldn’t afford hire cars, and taking 10-hour minivan drives through the night, the Barracuda’s tale is oddly inspiring.
Woodford United’s story is less heartening. Playing in Southern League Division One Central (eighth tier of English football) in 2012-13, they lost all 42 league matches. With the budget slashed, manager Howard Forinton fled, as did many players. Youth-team coaches took over with largely youth-team players. Results didn’t improve, but the remaining players kept going without pay or expenses to avoid a fine for pulling out. Woodford conceded 185 goals and scored 21, losing all 42 matches.
Further down the pyramid, Longford AFC made headlines in 2015-16 after signing former England international Stuart Pearce, then 53 and a year after being sacked as Nottingham Forest manager. Longford didn’t score a single goal until January. Pearce made a substitute appearance in March during a 1-0 defeat by Wotton Rovers, admitting he was “woefully short of fitness,” but it didn’t help: Longford lost all 30 matches.
Gibraltar Phoenix lost all 14 games in the 2013-14 Gibraltar Premier Division, their first season after being accepted by Uefa, and were promptly relegated. In 2006, Grêmio Barueri played in the Campeonato Paulista top flight, but a decade later, despite a 31,000-seater stadium in the third tier, they lost all 19 matches.
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