Pep Guardiola may have begun the season hoping to overhaul Liverpool – but it is Welsh side The New Saints that the Manchester City manager currently has in his sights.
Guardiola’s formidable City team have won their last 21 matches in all competitions, a record for an English top-flight side, as they chase an unprecedented quadruple.
Yet the Premier League leaders are still six wins short of equalling the overall world record for successive victories for a top division side, set by TNS four seasons ago.
The Cymru Premier outfit won 27 games in a row between August and December 2016, eclipsing the 26 straight won by Dutch giants Ajax in 1971-72, to establish a new Guinness World Record.
TNS striker Greg Draper feels it is extraordinary that a team such as City could chase down the figure given the high quality of opponents they face in England and Europe.
The former New Zealand international told the PA news agency: “Even at our level, to win 27 games in a row, you don’t even dream of setting those sort of targets or goals because they just seem so unrealistic.
“For them to do it in the Premier League and Champions League, you struggle to comprehend it sometimes. It is an unbelievable effort.”
The winning sequence set TNS up for what was the sixth of the eight consecutive league titles they won from 2012-19.
The world record was barely something that registered early in the run but Draper admits nerves did kick in the closer they got to the Ajax mark.
“Until we got to 20 games I had no idea what the world record even was,” said Draper. “You play wanting to win trophies and leagues.
“But then you start to think it would be nice to hold a world record like that. The closer we got the more excited we got but probably the more nervous we got.
“The game we played to equal the record and the game we played to break the record were probably two of our worst performances.
“You could tell the nerves were there. Luckily we managed to stumble over the line and get the record.”
Those two landmark wins both came against Cefn Druids, by scorelines of 4-0 and 2-0, in the week after Christmas in 2016. The run came to an end as they conceded an injury-time equaliser to draw 3-3 at Newtown in their next outing.
Draper is proud to have played a part in history and is quietly hoping City fall short over the course of the next six matches.
“To look back now and think you’ve held a world record like that, I think everyone that was part of it is really proud,” he said.
“So deep down I suppose we hope Man City don’t break it because we want to hold onto it for a little bit longer.
“But they’ve been on a great run – and it’s not just the run they’re on, it’s the level they’re doing it at, while obviously Pep’s been one of the best managers in the world for the last decade or so. Wherever he has gone he has done well.
“You’ve just got to take your hat off to them.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here