When was the phrase ‘smash-and-grab victory' first used in football?

The Guardian

12-03-2025

'Liverpool's 1-0 win against Paris Saint-Germain last week was the ultimate smash-and-grab victory. When was the phrase first used in a football context?' poses our very own Niall McVeigh.
Liverpool's win in Paris was smash-and-grab bingo. They were away from home, like all burglars. They were battered and their keeper had the game of his life, which made it feel like they had stolen a result they didn't deserve. The match was low-scoring, which meant there was a single, sudden moment of smashing and grabbing. And that moment came late on, in the 87th minute, increasing the dramatic impact to Hitchcockian levels.
It would still have been a smash-and-grab had Harvey Elliott scored in the second minute, before all of Alisson's saves, but it wouldn't have satisfied the smash-and-grab purists in the same way.
A meander through the newspaper archive suggests the use of the phrase 'smash and grab' in a football context has evolved over the past 90 years. But let's start with the etymology of the phrase, used to describe the literal act of smashing a window and lifting as much as possible before PC Plod strolls on to the scene. The earliest mention we could find was in the London Echo on 23 February 1904:
SMASH AND GRAB
Audacious thief sentenced
Sentence of 20 months' hard labour at Clerkenwell today on William Woolley (31), labourer, for breaking the window of one of Messrs Straker's establishments in the East End.
Prisoner's practice, it was shown, was to deliberately smash shop windows with a stone, and then bolt with whatever he could grab from the window.
The phrase became a metaphor for football writers in the 1930s, often when Herbert Chapman's all-conquering Arsenal were playing. It usually referred to their counter-attacking style – what might now be called rope-a-dope – rather than matches in which they were clearly outplayed.
There is inevitably a fair bit of crossover. Chelsea's famous win at Anfield in 2014, for example, was widely described as either a smash-and-grab victory and a Mourinho masterclass, even though they essentially mean different things. There's also the spin-off genre of warped smash-and-grab thrashings, although the snobbier purists would probably turn their nose up at that concept.
The first mention anywhere in this newspaper came after Arsenal's win at Liverpool in January 1935. 'The champions,' wrote our reporter, 'played their famous smash and grab game with great success.'
The meaning continued to evolve, and three years later was used in reference to Arsenal's bloodless pragmatism in a 3-1 win at Preston. 'Arsenal played with relentless and unsmiling efficiency – gloves off, sleeves rolled up, all looking very fierce indeed (especially [Wilf] Copping). Their football … was rarely beautiful, but it was wonderfully businesslike and direct. 'Smash and grab' someone called it.'
Norwich's 1-1 draw at home to Sheffield United in December 1960 ticks precisely none of the smash-and-grab bingo card that we suggested in the first paragraph – but it is the first mention in the Guardian archive of a team scoring in the last quarter to get an undeserved result, rather than merely having less of the ball:
One goal was poor reward for [Sheffield] United's considerable pressure. For 74 minutes they looked capable of holding on to their slender lead so inept were the Norwich forwards in front of goal. Then the visitors launched a 'smash and grab' raid and Alcock, their centre-forward, equalised. Norwich's short-passing football may have been attractive to watch, but generally it got them nowhere, and Hodgkinson in the Sheffield goal had a comparatively easy time.
That broader meaning became more widespread, particularly from the 1990s onwards, and every football fan will be able to recall a match in which they experienced the unique joy of watching their team nick a result after being battered. Some of the most celebrated smash-and-grab victories of modern times include:
Brazil 0-1 Argentina Italia 90
Man Utd 2-1 Bayern Munich 1999 Champions League final
Netherlands 0-0 Italy (1-3 pens) Euro 2000
Arsenal 1-2 Liverpool 2001 FA Cup final
Scotland 0-1 Finland Women's Euro 2022 qualifying
Paris Saint-Germain 0-1 Liverpool 2025 Champions League
A couple of footnotes before we move on. In the 1970s, the Bristol Rovers strike partnership of Alan Warboys and Bruce Bannister were immortalised as Smash and Grab, with the club even making Wild West-style posters of the 'Deadliest Duo in the West'.
As this Observer Sport Monthly interview with the pair explains: 'Warboys was an old-fashioned No 9 whose battering-ram approach earned him the Smash nickname, while the smaller Bannister would prey on any chances created. He was Grab.'
A couple of decades later, fan discontent with the performances of Southampton left-back Francis Benali reached a bizarre peak, as detailed in the Observer in August 1998.
[Southampton defender] Francis Benali recalled on Soccer AM that one year the Christmas tree was kidnapped from the club reception in a smash-and-grab raid. Later on, a ransom note was received bearing the message: 'Drop Benali – or the tree gets it.'
Thankfully, for the defender, the tree got it.
The risks people will take in the name of banter.
'What is the highest-scoring Premier League game that didn't feature an English born scorer? Extra points for the other top four European league equivalents?' asks Masai Graham.
We'll let the readers cover the other big European leagues – can you help! – but we've got an answer for the English top flight. In August 2014, José Mourinho's Chelsea served notice of their title-winning intent by blasting to a 6-3 victory at Everton. The nine goals were scored by folk from Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Ireland, Scotland and Serbia – but not England.
Everton 3 Kevin Mirallas (Belgium), Steven Naismith (Scotland), Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon)
Chelsea 6 Diego Costa 2 (Brazil), Branislav Ivanovic (Serbia), Seamus Coleman (own goal, Ireland), Nemanja Matic (Serbia), Ramires (Brazil)
'Watching Lazio draw with Napoli last month, I noted the similarity between their club crest and the logo of the shirt manufacturer, Mizuno. Are there any other notable examples of this in world football?' wonders Eddie Eyers.
Just the one answer to this so far, but it'll keep retro kit obsessives purring.
'It would've been wrong for France not to have had their kit made by Le Coq Sportif (RIP) at some point, and so it came to pass between 1970 and 1972,' writes Jim Hearson. 'However, as branding wasn't so prevalent in those days, the Le Coq Sportif logo only appeared on the outfielders' shorts. That said, the double coq did appear on the goalkeeper's shirt and, more recently, on all the jerseys of France's rugby team.'
In last week's column we plucked one from the archive about the last time a top-flight team started a match with players wearing shirts from No 1 to 11. We assumed, in this day and age, that the previous answer would be correct in perpetuity. Wrong!
Andrew Beasley and Mike Slattery both pointed out that, when he was manager of Burnley, Sean Dyche reinforced his old-school credentials with his team selection at Anfield in August 2021:
Nick Pope
Matt Lowton
Charlie Taylor
Jack Cork
James Tarkowski
Ben Mee
Johann Gudmundsson
Josh Brownhill
Chris Wood
Ashley Barnes
Dwight McNeil
'This glorious moment lasted all of 75 minutes until Jay Rodriguez (19) replaced Chris Wood (9),' writes Mike. 'For the next three matches, the only change to their starting lineup was Ashley Westwood (18) instead of Jack Cork (4), but despite this, and a few other close calls, they never quite managed to get the complete 1-11 on the field at the same time again.'
'Chelsea Women and Manchester City Women are about to meet in consecutive matches in three different competitions – over four games. Excluding replays, has this happened before?' asks Peter Collins (and others).
'Liverpool haven't conceded a Premier League goal while Wataru Endo has been on the pitch in his last 15 appearances – one last year and 14 this season. Is that a record? What are the most appearances in a season without conceding?' wonders Brendan O'Mahony.
'Last week Cambridge lost 1-0 at home to Stevenage and had their only shot in the 91st minute,' weeps Max Rushden Nick Orton. 'Is there any record of a home side waiting so long to have their first shot in a league game? Is this the lowest amount of shots a home side has had in a league game since records began? Just to be clear – I'm talking about general shots, rather than shots on target. The Cambridge shot in question certainly wasn't on target; it would've gone out for a throw if the ball hadn't been kept in play!'
'Harry Kane has scored over 400 goals for club and country without winning anything at senior level,' notes Michael Pilcher. 'Assuming he breaks his duck this season, who will hold the record for most career goals? Let's split it into two categories: most goals without a major honour and most without a trophy at any level.'
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