Winning league on last day against closest rivals

[Sporting]

Hearts - Kilmarnock
Barcelona - Atletico Madrid
Liverpool - Arsenal

(Away team wins every time.)

Any more?

[seand]

A few in Ireland recently-ish
2014 Dundalk trail Cork by a point.... Dundalk 2-0 Cork City
2005 Cork trail Derry by a point.... Cork City 2-0 Derry City
1991 Dundalk and Cork level on points, a tie would have meant a playoff..... Cork City 0-1 Dundalk

Plenty of other examples of final day dramatics, but they're the ones that spring to mind where it's winner-takes-all with the top 2 playing each other. I guess it's more likely in a smaller league, and more likely again if there's a top half / bottom half split. Presumably we're ignoring title playoffs here.

[Sporting]

Yes, play offs don't count.

[pebblethefish]

Also, are there any from around the world that happened in March? Games that were at the time just a top of the table tussle but then were the last match before the season stopped, and have retrospectively been title deciders?

[Drumchapel Dave]

Rangers against Aberdeen in 1991, a 2-0 win at Ibrox with Mark Hateley scoring both. From memory, Aberdeen had a second choice goalkeeper playing and he made a bit of a mess of it. I think Aberdeen would have won the league with a draw.

[Jumbo McGinnis]

Didn’t Doncaster end up winning the league at Brentford, who were well up there if memory serves, in that game where they conceded a penalty and went down the other end to score?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I don't understand why more leagues don't jiggle the fixture computer to ensure that the expected top four, say, are meeting in the last three rounds of fixtures. I know it won't always guarantee a dramatic finale (they might not be that year's top 4 after all, or someone can be 25 points clear with 9 games to go) but it would surely increase the chances.

[pebblethefish]

Didn’t Doncaster end up winning the league at Brentford, who were well up there if memory serves, in that game where they conceded a penalty and went down the other end to score?

Thank you for reminding me of one of the worst minutes of my life. And no, that was to finish second, rather than first. Losing out on a title in that way would have been bad - missing promotion was much, much worse.

[elguapo4]

Seand forgot 2003 Bohs 1 Shelbourne 0, last minute winner as well, another away win.

[Uros Predic]

Thank you for reminding me of one of the worst minutes of my life. And no, that was to finish second, rather than first. Losing out on a title in that way would have been bad - missing promotion was much, much worse.

I was doing the live club radio commentary for Rovers at this game. Almost had an on air heart attack.

For Brentford it was a case of win and get automatic promotion, anything else and they'd finish in the play-offs. For Doncaster, lose and they'd be in the play-offs, draw and they'd go up automatically, and win and they could nick the title if Bournemouth failed to win at Tranmere.

Bournemouth's game with Tranmere finished as a draw just before Brentford were awarded an injury time penalty with the score at 0-0 at Griffin Park. But the penalty hit the bar, and within 18 seconds Rovers had gone down the other end to score and take the divisional title. There's a great clip somewhere of Bournemouth fans on the Prenton Park pitch singing "We want our trophy now"... only to fall very quiet as news filters through.

[ad hoc]

This is you isn;t it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_3ElXgd23I

[Ray de Galles]

I don't understand why more leagues don't jiggle the fixture computer to ensure that the expected top four, say, are meeting in the last three rounds of fixtures. I know it won't always guarantee a dramatic finale (they might not be that year's top 4 after all, or someone can be 25 points clear with 9 games to go) but it would surely increase the chances.

Whenever I think Big Football has reached it's nadir of completely naff artificiality I realise it could be worse, Rogin could be the ideas man.

Fixtures like in the thread above are great precisely because of their rare and random nature, gerrymandering them to occur would kill that.

[Ray de Galles]

The converse of this thread is "Loser goes down" games on the last day. Two that spring to mind are the D4 relegation deciders between Brighton & Hereford and Barnet & Torquay. I rubbernecked at the latter I have to shamefully admit.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Whenever I think Big Football has reached it's nadir of completely naff artificiality I realise it could be worse, Rogin could be the ideas man.

Fixtures like in the thread above are great precisely because of their rare and random nature, gerrymandering them to occur would kill that.

There's "rare" and there's almost infinitessimal. We've talked about two examples so far in about 400 seasons of English league football, and one of those was 'gerrymandered' by events.

[pebblethefish]

The team that is top on the penultimate game of the season has a 1 in 19 chance of playing the team in second in their final game. That's maths even I can do

[Sporting]

The team that is top on the penultimate game of the season has a 1 in 19 chance of playing the team in second in their final game. That's maths even I can do

Yes, but the powers that be don't usually schedule (for example) Madrid vs Barcelona on the final day.

[caja-dglh]

I am not prepared to accept Hearts - Kilmarnock as an acceptable rivalry.

[Sporting]

I am not prepared to accept Hearts - Kilmarnock as an acceptable rivalry.

It was in 1965.

[ursus arctos]

Yes, but the powers that be don't usually schedule (for example) Madrid vs Barcelona on the final day.

Nor will they ever be allowed to, given those clubs' outsized influence on such decision

[lambers]

I've always presumed they actively try to keep the assumed contenders apart on the final day for two reasons:

• Security: with higher stakes on the line, there's more potential for greater fan concentration/trouble "in and around" the ground.
• TV: allows them to have multiple 'important' games going on at the same time. So, either the league can sell attractive rights for multiple games to multiple broadcasters, or a single broadcaster can charge a premium (whether on the day or for the season) to allow a household/pub to watch multiple channels at once.

[Sporting]

TV: allows them to have multiple 'important' games going on at the same time. So, either the league can sell attractive rights for multiple games to multiple broadcasters, or a single broadcaster can charge a premium (whether on the day or for the season) to allow a household/pub to watch multiple channels at once.

Only really relevant in the Sky etc TV era, though.

[Uros Predic]

This is you isn;t it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_3ElXgd23I

Yes. Think it was only my fourth or fifth game on commentary.

[Sporting]

Yes. Think it was only my fourth or fifth game on commentary.

Not sure it should have been a pen.

[Snake Plissken]

The converse of this thread is "Loser goes down" games on the last day. Two that spring to mind are the D4 relegation deciders between Brighton & Hereford and Barnet & Torquay. I rubbernecked at the latter I have to shamefully admit.

Burnley vs Plymouth, 1997.

[Various Artist]

This is you isn;t it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_3ElXgd23I

That was brilliant. Great work UP, not least for simply surviving the excitement.

Just for extra brilliance, when I followed AH's link there I was initially greeted by a video of Clive Owen – which made me wonder for five seconds whether there was some subtle joke going on I wasn't privy to, or whether you are, in fact, Clive Owen. Then I twigged it was an advert.