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If I had a nickel for every time an EFL Championship match had a goal that was too big, I'd have two nickels — which isn't a lot, but it's weird it's happened twice.
For the second weekend in a row, a Championship match had a delayed start as one goal was larger than the other, again by two inches. This time, the inconsistency occurred in Kingston upon Hull, where Hull City hosted Birmingham City. Referee Leigh Doughty noticed the issue during his pre-match check.
But unlike the Oct. 8 match in Wigan, Saturday's fixture was not played with the incorrectly sized goals. Instead, the Hull grounds crew used a buzz saw to remove the extra two inches so the fixture could be contested under regulation conditions.
Meanwhile at Hull City vs. Birmingham City, they're sawing the goals because they were two inches too big
— B/R Football (@brfootball) October 16, 2022
Between the carpentry work of the MKM Stadium grounds crew and the recalibration of the Hawk-Eye goal-line technology, the match started 20 minutes later.
Birmingham manager John Eustace believes the delay helped his team, saying: "We got a little bit more focused. I thought the first 20 minutes we were very good."
His Blues used a pair of goals to defeat the struggling hosts 2-0.
As in Wigan, Hull City also shares its ground with a professional rugby league side, thus necessitating the removal of the goals after every match. That does not answer where the extra two inches of goalpost came from, nor why home teams are now winless when their goals are too big.
