Hat Tricks in English Football Quiz

Answer: Alan Shearer

Alan Shearer scored a hat-trick on his league debut for Southampton at The Dell, at the age of 17 years and 240 days (just short of 17yrs 8mths): Southampton v Arsenal 4-2 on 9th April 1988.

Answer: Eric Cantona

Leeds United v Tottenham Hotspur 5-0 on 25th August 1992. Cantona joined Leeds in January 1992 and won a Championship medal with Leeds for the 1991-92 season, the last season in which The Football League had 4 divisions. He also scored a hat-trick earlier that month, on 8th August 1992, in the 4-3 Charity Shield victory against Liverpool (winners of the 1992 FA Cup).

He left Leeds in November to win another Championship medal (the first of 4) with Manchester United in the FA Premier League.

Answer: 37

Dixie Dean scored an incredible 37 hat-tricks in his career. Most football commentators are of the opinion that this record is unlikely to be beaten, along with his record haul of 60 goals in a season (1927-28).

Answer: Stan Mortensen

1953 FA Cup Final: Blackpool v Bolton Wanderers 4-3. This game is best remembered as the 'Stanley Matthews Final' as he had already appeared in two Cup Finals, and left Wembley without a winner's medal - Blackpool had lost to the Manchester United in 1948 and Newcastle United in 1951.

Blackpool were behind 1-3 with 20 minutes remaining, 2-3 with three minutes left, and then drew level at 3-3 with less than one minute of injury time on the clock. The ball went to Matthews on the wing - his ability to lose left-backs was Stan's forte - he shot past the full back and headed for the goal-line. The Bolton centre-half gave up catching him and instead chose to cover Stan Mortensen in the centre. Matthews crossed the ball back behind Mortensen and Bill Perry the left winger grabbed the cup-winning fourth goal.

The first hat-trick in an FA Cup Final was scored by William Townley when Blackburn Rovers beat Sheffield Wednesday 6-1 in 1890 (at Kennington Oval). The FA Cup final was played at Wembley Stadium from 1923 to 2000 inclusive (it was demolished later that year).

Answer: George Camsell

George Camsell scored 9 hat-tricks for Middlesbrough in 1926-27, who won promotion that year as Division 2 Champions. Most football historians are of the opinion that this record is unlikely to be beaten (scoring 27 goals in a season is a feat in itself).