Featherstone Rovers Records: Goals in a Match

Featherstone Rovers Records: 
Goals in a Match

Record History

When looking at records you have to remember that the sort of scoring we are used to seeing in recent years was very different in days gone by. To illustrate the point, younger supporters would be surprised to know that Fev have played 81 matches in which the aggregate score has been 6 or less points and they have played in which the final score was 0-0!

Goals in a match are taken as the total of successfully kicked conversions, penalties and drop goals. Drop goals are included because until 1973-74 they counted as 2 points and there is no information available to distinguish between drop goals and other goals, just as modern records do not distinguish between conversions and penalties.

From the beginning

In our first season (1921-22), the first game was away at Bradford Northern on August 27th and Jimmy Williams kicked 3 goals in our 17-3 victory. He did the same again on the 17th September against Keighley. That was surpassed on Christmas Eve 1921 when Jim Denton kicked 4 at home against Hull Kingston Rovers. The following season Jim Denton kicked 4 again twice (September 9th against Halifax and the following week on September 17th against Salford). A few weeks later this record was equalled by Tom Wynard on 11th November, 1922 against Keighley.

On the 22nd September, 1923 Tom Wynard raised the record by kicking 6 goals against Bradford Northern. It was more than eight years before this was broken when George Johnson kicked 10 in an amazing 47-0 win against Bradford Northern (again!) on October 3rd, 1931.

George Johnson remained the record holder for over 32 years. It was finally beaten on 8th February, 1964 when Rovers beat amateurs Stanningley 60-4 in the first round of the Challenge Cup. Don Fox kicked 12 goals in that match.

Don Fox held that record for 25 years. Then on 17th September, 1989 Rovers thrashed Keighley 86-18 in the first round of the Yorkshire Cup and Mark Knapper (who only played 16 games for Fev) kicked 13 goals. That record still stands. Perhaps, in his short career, Mark is even better known for a touchline conversion in the final moments of the Yorkshire Cup semi-final that year that won the match against Castleford!

Summer Era

No player in the summer era has been able to beat Mark Knapper’s record but Liam Finn equalled it twice in 2012. The first occasion was against Hunslet Old Boys in the Challenge Cup on the 25th March and then he repeated the feat in a Championship match against Swinton Lions on August 12th.

Footnote

It’s a bit of a surprise that Steve Quinn, Fev’s overall record goal kicker, doesn't feature in the goals in a match record. He kicked 11 goals in a match twice and 10 goals three times but all those were after Don Fox had set the record at 12.