A total of 49 of the 54 penalties taken by Washington and Bedlington in their shootout were scoredA world record 54 penalties were needed to separate two non-league sides from England’s north-east in a marathon cup shootout on Wednesday.
More spot-kicks were taken at the end of the Ernest Armstrong Memorial Cup tie between Washington and Bedlington than there were people watching.
The crowd of 40 were treated to an dramatic 3-3 draw in the 90 minutes before Washington prevailed 25-24.
The Guinness World Record for the longest shootout was 48 attempts.
The first-round cup tie at the Ford Quarry Football Hub in Sunderland between the Northern League Division Two sides surpasses the efforts it took for KK Palace to overcome Civics 17-16 in a 2005 Namibian Cup shootout in 2005.
It also surpasses the recently set English shootout record of 44 spot-kicks, which saw Old Wulfrunians, from Wolverhampton, get the better of Bloxwich-based Lane Head 19-18 in a near half-hour long shootout.
On this occasion, the spot-kick drama was not even contained to just the shootout between the two 10th tier sides, with a stoppage-time penalty from Washington’s Bradley Chisholm to complete his hat-trick needed to take make it 3-3 after 90 minutes.