For almost eight years, the answer to a particular pub quiz question was Mark Stein. The question was who held the Premier League record for scoring in the most consecutive matches. The answer was a 5ft 6in striker from Cape Town, signed by Glenn Hoddle’s Chelsea from Stoke City in October 1993 for £1.5 million.
Mark Stein: Career Background and Chelsea Move
Steino Breaking Records
Stein had moved to London with his family in the 1970s after leaving South Africa. His older brother Brian had got the Luton Town fairy tale a few years earlier — the prolific goalscoring career, a winner’s medal in the 1988 League Cup Final, the open-top bus. Mark joined Luton himself in 1983 and then made the journeyman’s tour through the lower divisions before settling at Stoke City. At Stoke, he was central to the side that won the Second Division title in 1992–93. The supporters there nicknamed him “The Golden One”. His form was prolific enough that Hoddle, newly installed as player-manager at Stamford Bridge, paid £1.5 million to take him out of the second tier, all the way to Stamford Bridge.
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What followed was six weeks that no Chelsea fan could have anticipated.
Between 27 December 1993 and 5 February 1994, Stein scored in seven consecutive Premier League matches. The streak began with the only goal of a 1–0 win at Newcastle. He scored in wins over Swindon and Everton — twice against the latter — and rescued 1–1 draws against Norwich and Aston Villa. By the time it ended on 5 February, the Premier League — then in only its second year of existence — had a new top-flight consecutive-scoring record.
The thing about Stein’s record is that it didn’t sound like a record. Seven games. You hear it and think: Shearer must have done that. Surely Cole, Yorke, somebody. But the league at that point was three years young, and the Premier League era was still being defined, and a clean run of seven goals in seven matches was further than anyone had been so far. Mark Stein, Chelsea’s small autumn signing, had quietly drawn a line that turned out to be hard to cross for many.
Mark Stein After the Chelsea Record
Then his Achilles went, and that was more or less that.
He was stretchered off in a league fixture at Old Trafford and didn’t play again until the final day of the season. Chelsea — who had reached the FA Cup Final somehow during all of this — picked him for Wembley anyway. He played, struggled for fitness throughout, and was substituted as Manchester United beat them 4–0 in front of him. By the start of the next season, the legacy of returning too soon had compounded, and 1994–95 was effectively a write-off.
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He never properly came back. Two years as a perennial reserve. A loan back to Stoke in 1996–97. A free transfer to Bournemouth in the summer of 1998. Twenty-five goals in sixty-three Chelsea games. One brilliant six-week run that ensured his legacy at the Bridge lives on. Steino, Steino, Steino!
Mark Stein: Broken Record and Chelsea Legacy
The record stood through the rest of the 90s, into the 2000s, through the arrival of Bergkamp and Henry, through Shearer’s peak at Newcastle, through Cole and Yorke at United, and through so much more, and no one managed to beat it.
Enter Ruud van Nistelrooy. Between December 2001 and January 2002, the Dutchman scored in eight consecutive Premier League matches for Manchester United, breaking Stein’s record that had stood for almost eight years. He then went one better the following season, extending his own record to ten consecutive games. Stein’s number had been well and truly surpassed. Despite the record being broken, Steino is still held in high esteem by Chelsea fans from the 90s.
What was so refreshing about Steino’s record was that it was pre-social media, so there was limited fuss. He scored a couple, and then carried on scoring. Who knows what he could have achieved that season if he hadn’t picked up the achilles injury?
Some records are broken by stars. Some are set by them. Honestly, Stein would do well to be picked out of a photograph by most fans nowadays, but Steino was a penalty box predator, and I can remember telling my dear old Dad that Stein was my favourite Chelsea player at the time. His legacy remains for the older Chelsea fans. Steino, Steino, Steino!
Featured Image Credit:
SmartFrame – Pro Sports Images
