December 23 – An unheralded club in Wales is on the verge of making international football history. Welsh Premier League champions The New Saints have already established a Welsh Premier League record of consecutive wins but now they are close to setting a new world record of consecutive victories in all competitions.
The Oswestry-based side (Oswestry is actually on the English side of the border with Wales) have won 25 games in a row in all competitions this season and are one win away from equalling a 44-year record set by the 1972 Ajax team of Johan Cruyff and Johann Neeskens.
Beat second-from-bottom Cefn Druids at home on Boxing Day and Saints will equal Ajax’s record of 26 wins. Victory in the return game away at Druids on Friday, December 30 will see Saints set a new record of 27 consecutive wins.
Ajax themselves came within one game of equalling the record during the 1995-96 season when a side featuring Edwin van der Sar, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids and Jari Litmanen won 25 games in a row.
Brazilian side Cortiba won 24 straight games in 2011 and Real Madrid – including Wales forward Gareth Bale – won 22 consecutive games during the 2014-15 season.
Scottish side East Kilbride actually went on a longer winning run earlier this season, with 30 consecutive wins and received a crate of beer from Ajax in recognition.
But their feat has not been officially recognised since they play in the fifth-tier Lowland League.
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