Those fretting about fixture congestion can count their blessings they were not in Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough team that reached a UEFA Cup final.
Boro played 64 games in that 2005-06 season, while also reaching the FA Cup semi-final and Carling Cup quarter-final — taking in plenty of replays along the way.
During one crazy phase they played 22 matches in 68 days, peaking with four in nine days in April. They had two league games on Saturday and Monday, a UEFA Cup semi-final trip to Romania on Thursday and an FA Cup semi-final against West Ham at Villa Park less than 72 hours after that.