Latics finish 28th. in the Premiership

Last updated : 16 April 2003 By The Chairman

Not that we like to mention 'that team from down the road' but.....

Man Utd top the 10-year league for last minute goals It is now official!Manchester United is the luckiest team in the Premiership, with the most late goals scored in matches over the past 10 years. New research from The National Lottery® confirms every football fan's suspicion - that you can’t rule United out of a game until the final whistle has blown.

While Manchester United tops the ten-year league for instant wins, our own Oldham Athletic come in at 28th place with Neil Adams having scored three from a total of 10 last minute winners. Over their history in the Premiership,
10% of Oldham's goals have been scored in the last five minutes of a game.

The research found that Alan Shearer is the king of late goals, scoring 20 last gasp scores in the ten years of the Premiership. Arsenal legend and presenter of BBC ONE’s The National Lottery Wright Ticket, Ian Wright is the second luckiest player, having scored 13 goals in the last minutes of a game.

Jacquie Wilson from The National Lottery says, "This research seems to add weight to the fans' theory that certain teams are 'lucky', yet, as they say, you can always make your own luck. The new online Instant Win Games from the
National Lottery give you a chance to win up to £10,000 instantly and it will be interesting to see how many of our winners are keen football fans who choose to use their lucky break to buy a season ticket or box at their favourite club."

So will we see the Premiership won in an instant when Man Utd play Arsenal at Highbury tonight? If the statistics are anything to go by, Manchester United could win in the last five minutes of the game with a Solskjaer goal!

Top late goal scoring teams from past 10 Premiership seasons
Manchester Utd 74 goals
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool 70 goals each
Leeds 60 goals
Newcastle 59 goals
Southampton 55 goals
Tottenham Hotspur 49 goals
West Ham 42 goals
Everton 40 goals
Aston Villa 35 goals
Blackburn Rovers 34 goals
Sheffield Wednesday 32 goals

The research also showed that:
- 9% of Premiership goals over the past ten years have been scored in the last five minutes of a game
- The most late goals have been scored in the 2001/2002 season with 118, Chelsea contributed the highest amount with 13 (20% of their total goals for the season)
- Bolton have the highest percentage of goals scored at the end of game in one season, 24% of their goals this season have been scored in the final five minutes
- 1995/1996 had the least amount of goals in the last five minutes with only 65, accounting for just 7% of the total goals across the season

Whether teams win or lose this weekend, football fans can also experience the exhilaration of scooping a big prize in an instant by winning up to £10,000 on the new Instant Win Games at www.national-lottery.co.uk.