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Everyone thought it was just Arsenal and Tottenham but statistic historians confirm it's Tranmere Rovers too.

Stoke City are in a very exclusive club after drawing FOUR games 0-0 in a row.

Nathan Jones stands next to Arsene Wenger (the last to do it, in 2009, with Arsenal), George Graham (who, remarkably did it twice, with Arsenal and Spurs), and John Aldridge.

Aldridge was player-manager at Tranmere in December 1997 and January 1998 when they played out five consecutive stalemates; against Bury, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion, Queens Park Rangers and Manchester City.

Opta now insist that is the longest run of goalless draws in the history of the Football League or Premier League.

Stoke can draw level (and let's face it, they're draw specialists) if they hammer out a bore draw at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday. The bookies price that at 6/1, the same odds they offered for last weekend's clash with Sheffield Wednesday.

Tranmere did sandwich two FA Cup victories into their 0-0s, a 3-0 win at Hereford and 1-0 win over Sunderland, but in the league there was nada at either end for a whopping 484 minutes.

Who were these misers?

(Image: Jamie McDonald /Allsport)

At one end there was Steve Simonsen, who went on to also set the club record for longest run without conceding at Stoke, backed up by defenders including John McGreal, Gary Stevens and Andy Thompson.

At the other end firing blanks were Aldridge, David Kelly, Lee Jones and Andy Parkinson.

(Image: Steve Bould)

And yes, that's right, they went on to score THREE at Stoke two months later in a match best remembered for Nevile Southall's slow motion charge out of his penalty area, with disastrous consequences. They had scored three past Stoke the month before that run too, winning 3-1 at Prenton Park.

Stoke have now not scored in 376 minutes and haven't conceded in 478 minutes.

They have not scored for four consecutive games since… last month and a run up to a goalless draw at Wigan Athletic. But they haven’t gone five straight blanks since 2006 and back in the early spring of the brief Johan Boskamp era.

For the record, Stoke have gone six games without scoring on three occasions (in 1957, the binary season of 2004/05; the haunting relegation season of 1984/85). They have only gone longer in 1985 – when it stretched to a remarkable eight.