In December, Melbourne City FC took on local rivals Melbourne Victory, however, the match was abandoned midway due to a violent pitch invasion by Victory fans.
City were winning 1-0 at the time, thanks to an 11th-minute goal from midfielder Aiden O’Neill (Australia). When the match was then resumed earlier this month, O’Neill scored again – officially 46 minutes after his first goal, but almost 109 days later.
O’Neill, who formerly played for Burnley, set a record for the longest time between scoring goals in the same football match at 108 days 23 hours 59 minutes.
“Coming into a game that you’ve already scored in is a pretty weird feeling – obviously full of confidence,” he said to reporters after the game.
“And I think you could see that, scoring a second. I’m not renowned as a goal scorer either, so it was pretty crazy.”
The original Melbourne derby on 17 December was abandoned after just 21 minutes when Victory fans stormed the AAMI Park pitch, injuring City goalkeeper Tom Glover and referee Alex King.
The match resumed on 5 April, with the clock starting from the 21st minute and King dropping the ball to Glover.
O’Neill doubled his goal tally with a thunderous strike in the match’s 57th minute, over 157,000 real-time minutes after his first.
“So what, Aiden was man of the match, and he scored two goals three months apart? There you go — world record,” City manager Rado Vidošić joked to reporters after the match.
As punishment for their fans’ behaviour, Melbourne Victory were handed a suspended 10-point deduction, along with crowd restrictions and $550,000 in financial sanctions.
The win helped Melbourne City on their way to securing their third straight A-League title, which they made official after drawing 1-1 against Central Coast Mariners on 15 April.
No other team in the A-League’s 18-year history has been able to win three consecutive league titles.
The feat has only ever been accomplished once before in Australian men’s national league history, by Sydney City between 1980 and 1982 in the National Soccer League.
