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Newcastle United In Between Corners: What 785 Days of Futility Looks Like

Newcastle United scored from a corner kick for the first time in over 2 years Saturday. Here's a look at what's changed since 1 October 2011.

By Robert L. Bishop
Richard Heathcote

Newcastle United scored from a corner kick in the second minute of their 2-1 victory over Norwich City Saturday when a Yohan Cabaye in-swinging delivery bounced through the box and met the head of one Loic Remy. It was their first such goal in competitive play since 1 October 2011. Here are some fun facts about the goal:

  • The span between Newcastle's last corner goal and this one was 785 calendar days.
  • According to reader Souvik Roy Chowdhury, Newcastle had taken 386 corner kicks in a row without converting prior to Remy's goal.
  • In between the two goals, Newcastle played a total of 102 competitive matches. 80 of those were Premier League contests, 14 of them were played in the Europa League, and 8 of them were in domestic cups.
  • The player that scored the goal in October 2011 was Demba Ba, who left the team over 10 months ago and came off the bench for Chelsea on Saturday.
  • The team Newcastle scored against was Wolverhampton Wanderers, who have since been relegated twice. Saturday they played Brentford to a 0-0 draw in League One play.
  • On 2 October 2011, Loic Remy played for Olympique Marseille in their 1-1 draw against Stade Brest, who are now in Ligue 2.
  • Yohan Cabaye hadn't yet tallied his first goal for Newcastle that day. He has since scored 13 in all competitions.
  • Since 1 October 2011, Newcastle United have had three different shirt sponsors: Northern Rock, Virgin Money, and Wonga.
  • In the intervening period, St James' Park was rebranded Sports Direct Arena and then rerebranded St James' Park.
  • Players transferred out of Newcastle since that goal include: Kazenga LuaLua, Alan Smith, Peter Lovenkrands, Danny Guthrie, Phil Airey, Leon Best, Fraser Forster, Demba Ba, Xisco, Nile Ranger, Danny Simpson, Bradden Inman, James Perch, Steve Harper, and numerous other reserve and academy players.
  • Players transferred into Newcastle since that goal include: Papiss Cisse, Romain Amalfitano, Gael Bigirimana, Curtis Good, Vurnon Anita, Mathieu Debuchy, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Yoan Gouffran, Moussa Sissoko, Massadio Haidara, Kevin Mbabu, and Olivier Kemen.
  • Sunderland have had 4 managers during that time (plus two caretakers).
  • In all, a total of 22 Premier League managers left their posts in those 785 days.
  • According to various sources on the internet (so who knows, really), an average 25 month-old child will be able to sort objects by shapes and colors, balance on one leg, understand cause and effect, complete simple puzzles, and will have a minimum spoken vocabulary of 20 words, including pronouns. Many parents will start potty-training their child at or around this age.
  • Since Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the monarchy on 6 February 1952, the United Kingdom has been involved in 20 armed conflicts. Eight of them were shorter than 785 days long.
  • A selected list of notable people that have died since 1 October 2011 (RIP): Steve Jobs, Gary Speed, Kim Jong-Il, Etta James, Whitney Houston, Dick Clark, Maurice Sendak, Ray Bradbury, Rodney King, Andy Griffith, Jon Lord, Jack Taylor, Tony Scott, Neil Armstrong, Michael Clarke Duncan, Larry Hagman, Hugo Chavez, Roger Ebert, George Jones, Iain Banks, James Gandolfini, David Frost, Tom Clancy.

We asked our Twitter followers to name some things that have happened since the day Demba Ba headed in a corner against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Here are some of the responses:

There was a clear winner:

Other things that have happened since 1 October 2011:

  • The United Nations declared that the world population had reached 7 billion. The current estimate, according to census.gov, is approximately 7.126 billion.
  • The Encylopaedia Brittanica stopped printing.
  • The United States launched and landed a rover on Mars.
  • Newcastle's 2012 Christmas party was canceled after a run of poor form. #ColosParty happened.
  • Pope Benedict II resigned; Pope Francis was appointed.
  • KONY 2012.
  • Prince George of Cambridge was conceived and birthed.
  • Four different iterations of the iPhone (4S, 5, 5C, 5S) were announced and released. Two of them (4S and 5) have since been discontinued.
  • Three different Call of Duty games were released.
  • Julian Assange was granted diplomatic asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He has now been there for 522 consecutive days.

The counter now starts over at 23 November 2013. If it were to take Newcastle another 785 days to score their next goal from a corner kick, we could expect that goal on 18 January 2016. In the meantime, let us consider whether or not John Ruddy should have gotten to this ball:

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