Defoe beats Aldo's record - January 24, 2001
West Ham striker Jermaine Defoe has written his own page of history while on loan at second-division Bournemouth by eclipsing John Aldridge's post-war record of scoring in nine successive league games.
Defoe bagged his his 12th goal in ten league games when he gave Bournemouth the lead against Cambridge after 64 minutes last night. Bournemouth went on to win the game but that will be only a footnote in the record books as all the plaudits will be handed to the 18-year-old.
Aldridge set his record at the start of the 1987-88 season. Free of playing second fiddle to Ian Rush at Liverpool, Aldridge proved that his transfer fee of £700,000 just eight months beforehand was money well spent.
He scored after nine minutes of the opening game of the season against Arsenal at Highbury which set up the Reds for a 2-1 win.
Fourteen days later he was on target from the spot in a 4-1 at Coventry. He then earned Liverpool a point at West Ham with one of his trademark penalties.
Oxford, Charlton and Newcastle United were the next three teams to feel the wrath of the Irish international before he scored a hat trick against Derby County in a 4-0 win at Anfield.
John's final two goals of the record both came from the penalty spot at Anfield in successive 4-0 wins against Portsmouth and QPR.
Aldridge's record was equalled later in the same season by Wrexham's Kevin Russell but at the much lower level of the old Division Four.