The timeline draws the game as a horizontal bar, split into halves, with an icon at the minute each event happened. Home events sit above the line, away events below it, so you can read who did what and when at a glance.
There is nothing to configure
The timeline has no settings of its own – not on the Settings screen, and not per game. What it draws comes entirely from the game’s events and its duration. If you are looking for a per-game Match Timeline option, there isn’t one; older documentation described a field that no longer exists.
🚀 1. Get a timeline on the page
The timeline draws itself on every game page, above the goals. You don’t have to place it, as long as the conditions in the next section are met.
That changes the moment you build a Game layout. A game layout replaces the default page completely, so any block you didn’t add is gone, this one included. Two ways to put it back:
- In the Layout Builder, add the Timeline block from the Match group. The built-in Finished Game layout already puts it directly under the scoreboard – press Load Predefined Layout to start from there.
- With the match shortcode:
[anwpfl-match match_id="123" sections="timeline"].
2. What has to be true before it draws
The timeline is deliberately quiet – it renders nothing rather than an empty bar. Three conditions, all required:
- The game has to be under way or over. Finished, carrying a live status, or an active API-import game. An upcoming game draws nothing, which is why the block seems to appear by itself on match day.
- There have to be events. Goals, cards, substitutions and missed penalties are the four types the timeline draws. Nothing else on the Match Events tab reaches it – commentary and significant events belong to the commentary block instead.
- Each event needs a minute. An event with the Minute field left empty is skipped. A finished game whose events all lack minutes renders nothing at all.
⏱ 3. How the bar is divided
Each half gets its own segment, sized in proportion to its length, with a separate narrow segment for its added time. Extra time is added on the end when the game went there.
| Segment | Length comes from |
|---|---|
| 1st half | Half of Full Time in the game editor’s Match Duration tab. Default 90, so 45. |
| 1st half added time | Additional Time > 1st Half on the Scores & Match Stats tab. |
| 2nd half | The other half of Full Time. |
| 2nd half added time | Additional Time > 2nd Half. |
| Extra time | Extra Time in Match Duration, default 30. Only when the game went to extra time. |
Change Full Time and the whole bar rescales – set it to 80 for a youth game and the halves become 40 minutes each. If an event lands in added time beyond the number you entered, the segment stretches to fit it rather than pushing the icon off the end.
Events past full time with no extra time are dropped
An event at minute 95 on a 90-minute game that did not go to extra time has no segment to live in, so the timeline skips it. Record stoppage-time events as minute 90 with the Additional minute field set to 5 – that is what the 90+5 notation is for, and it also puts the icon in the right place.
4. Reading the icons
Home events sit above the line, away events below. Within one team, the distance from the line tells you the type: goals sit closest, cards a step further out, substitutions furthest.
- Goals use three different ball icons – a normal goal, an own goal and a penalty.
- Cards use the colour you picked, including second yellow.
- A missed penalty gets the crossed-out ball.
- Substitutions get the arrows icon.
Hover any icon for a tooltip with the minute, the event name and the player. A substitution names both players, and a goal adds the assist when you recorded one.
The half labels and the word used for an assist are editable under Translations > Text Strings.
5. During a live game
A game being fed by the live import redraws its own timeline as new events arrive, without a page reload. You do not have to place a different block – the same Timeline block switches to the live version while the game is running and back to the stored events afterwards.
Setting it up is covered in Live Scores.
🆘 Troubleshooting
The block is completely missing
Work down the three conditions in section 2, in order. In practice it is nearly always the third one: events entered without a minute. Open the Match Events tab and check the Minute column.
One event is missing but the rest are there
Either that event has no minute, or its minute is past full time on a game that did not go to extra time. See the warning in section 3.
An event is on the wrong side
The side is decided by the club on the event, not by the player. An event with the wrong club – or with the club cleared – lands below the line. Open the event and set the club.
Icons are stacked on top of each other
Several events for the same team in the same minute are stacked outwards, and only the first five are drawn. This is rare in a real game and usually means the same event was entered more than once.
📚 Related
- Match Commentary – the text version of the same events, plus the ones the timeline ignores.
- Match Scoreboard – the header the timeline usually sits under.
- Layout Builder – where the block goes on the page.