TIMINGS

I reckon weekend football should kick off at 3pm on a Saturday, but the demands of television have seen a variety of kick off times develop over both days of the weekend. Television dictated the earliest kick-off in Premier League history on Sunday October 2nd 2005 at the City of Manchester Stadium, when Manchester City were desperate for TV income. Their match against Everton was screened on PPV (pay per view) TV and kicked off at 11.15am on the Sunday morning, in front of a 42,681 crowd. No doubt the others were in church? 

TV also dictated the kick-off time of the 2008 Champions' League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea. Armchair fans saw the match kick off at 7.45pm which was perfect for the British and western European TV audience. But the match was played in Moscow and 7.45 for us was 10.45pm local time in Russia. When extra time was over and the penalties were taken, it was 1.30 am, the following morning in Moscow!! and after the final whistle and other amusements, the cup still had to be presented!

TV couldn't be blamed for the earliest kick off in senior football in England - it happened in 1892! Football League side Burton Swifts were double-booked on Saturday 1st October 1892 - involving a Second Division match at Crewe Alexandra and a home FA Cup Preliminary Round fixture against Singers of Coventry (a forerunner of Coventry City). They solved the problem by bringing forward the cup tie to the previous Wednesday - with an 8am kick off, yes that's 8 o'clock in the morning! Swifts won 3-0 although there is no record of the attendance!

APRIL FOOL! A DAY LATE

1st April 2025: April Fools' Day jokes dominated the air waves, with some fans taking the opportunity to poke fun at Manchester UnitedII It has been a dire season for the Red Devils, who currently found themselves down in 13th place in the Premier League table. They look set to miss out on European football altogether, and have not come close to winning the Champions League since losing in the final to Barcelona, back in 2011. 

A fake report suggested the sides that come up could be given a helping hand before a ball is even kicked, which drew a furious reaction from Cundy. 'I'm sorry, there's no way they'll get this over the line,' he said. 'There's no way the Premier League teams will vote for this. Absolutely no way.  'There'll be court cases everywhere. You're not going to hear the end of that one.' He was speaking to The Guardian's football journalist Jamie Jackson, who just about managed to keep a straight face during Cundy's rant. 

Popular ex-footballer and TV personality Chris Kamara also got in on the act as he took to X with some 'incredible news'. Alongside a photo that looked suspiciously like himself with girl's hair, Kamara wrote to his followers: 'Wow, some incredible news. Just found out after all these years that I have sister!!! She is called April, first I’ve heard of it. Who do you think you are, coming to our screens very soon on ITV.' Kamara's joke comes just months after he made his return to TV amid his battle with speech apraxia.

Kamara had been out of the spotlight due to the neurological disorder that affects the brain pathways involved in producing speech. But he made his comeback to cover Nottingham Forest's 1-0 win over Tottenham on Boxing Day, as he reunited with old friend Jeff Stelling on Amazon Prime Video. Over three months on, he appears to still be in good spirits, although it seems unlikely that his joke will have caught out many fans this time around.

1st April 2006 Leicester City opened their new stadium in July 2002 and on this day in 2006 the record attendance figure was set at the stadium – by the local rugby club! A crowd of 32,488 were present at the ground – then called the Walkers Stadium – for a Heineken Cup quarter-final between Leicester Tigers and Bath. The best Leicester City have managed for one of their games was 32,242 in the Premier League against Sunderland on August 8th 2015 - their first match in their amazing title winning season - with less seats being available at football matches because of the need for crowd segregation.

1st April 2011
There was shock when The Sun newspaper reported that Alex Ferguson had agreed to become Life President of the Referees' Association. Fergie never had an easy relationship with match officials but the Manchester United manager was reported to have accepted the role in an effort to end his long-running feud with the officials. Under the terms of his appointment, he promised to serve as an ambassador for all referees and their assistants and would try not to criticise their performances after matches. Then the date was noticed!

JIM ROSENTHAL @ 77 NOT DONE YET!!

Jim Rosenthal (born 6 November 1947) is an English sports' presenter and commentator. In a long broadcasting career, Rosenthal has presented coverage of many sports including football, rugby, automotive racing, boxing and athletics. He has covered eight FIFA World Cups, three Rugby World Cups, two Olympic Games and 150 Formula Races races. The Times, today published an artical about Jim entitled "One of television's great voices, who at 77, he is not done yet!" Today's "Times" newspaper reports on his "life in sport". My colleagues and I at Charterhouse School, were proud to play a charity match on Big Ground against the "Commentators' XI", which included the likes of John Motson and Jim and his many colleagues from the football press.

Rosenthal grew up in Oxford, into a family of German Jewish roots,the son of Maud Ruth and Albrecht Gabriel "Albi" Rosenthal, who was a music scholar and who headed an academic family. His father was born in Munich, Germany. 

Rosenthal attended Magdelene College School and then joined the staff of the Oxford Mail and went on to work for the BBC. Rosenthal worked for Snooker Scene magazine in the early 1970s where his editor was Clive Everton, and Rosenthal, a keen amateur hockey player, edited the short-lived Hockey Scene magazine, also owned by Everton. Rosenthal worked for local BBC Radio Sports Unit between 1976 and 1980. His television career began when he joined ITV in 1980. He was part of the ITV team covering the FIFA World Cup from 1982.

In the 1980s, Rosenthal commentated on boxing matches for ITV and in the 1990s, Rosenthal was a presenter of ITV's The Big Fight Live, which reached huge nationwide audiences for boxing contests involving the likes of Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank and Naseem Hamed, Amir Khan and Joe Calzaghe, when it returned in 2005.

Rosenthal covered three Rugby World Cup campaigns for ITV, including anchoring coverage of England's victory in the 2003 final. He was the presenter of Formula 1 motor racing on ITV for eight years and presented 152 Formula One races from 1997. He agreed terms with ITV to present its coverage of the sport in early 1997. Rosenthal presented ITV's Champions League football coverage, as well as their boxing output. He presented ITV4's Champions League Live show and the channel's live match coverage, until he was dropped in 2008 from his exclusive contract with ITV after 28 years with the channel as the network sought new presenters. 

ITV's head of news and sport, Mark Sharman, said at the time: "Jim Rosenthal has made a magnificent contribution to ITV Sport over a long period of time but we will no longer tie him to an exclusive contract. He will be free to explore other challenges while ITV Sport will have the opportunity to make on-air changes."

Internationally, Rosenthal regularly hosted the UEFA Gala Dinner in Monaco, a football spectacular that is broadcast across the world. He has presented the live FA Cup draws for ITV and editions of BBC Radio Live's Sportsweek show.

In 2010, Rosenthal took on announcing duties on game show The Whole 19 Yard and reported for ITV Sport during the opening ceremony of the South Africa World Cup, In September of that year, he joined Channel 5 to front their Europa League football coverage. Rosenthal said: "I've covered many different sports throughout my career, but football has always been my first love. It's tremendous to be back covering the game at the highest level." His first appearance was on 16 September 2010, covering the game between Liverpool and Steaua Bucharest from Anfield.

In 2011, Rosenthal became the lead presenter on the boxing channel BoxNation. Since 2014, Rosenthal has provided commentary for Channel 4s coverage of Crufts!!!

In November 2019, Rosenthal became the new "Voice of JACK", replacing and following the death of actor Paul Darrow as the new on-air voice of Oxfordshire's local JACK branded radio stations and their national radio station Union JACK. He is the lead presenter of matchday coverage on Manchester United's in-house channel MUTV and is one of the presenters of Amazon Prime's Premier League coverage.

On 10 May 2021, Rosenthal began broadcasting on the JACK Group’s new breakfast show "JACK's Wake Up Call" together with Trevor Marshall from JACKFM Oxford. The show is broadcast from the Oxford studios where Trevor Marshall was previously presenter of the "JACK's Morning Glory" breakfast show. He has also had a part in the television's "Footballers' Wives".

He has twice been named as the Royal Television Society's Sports Presenter of the Year. He was the main anchor of ITV's BAFTA winning coverage of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, which took him to Australia for the final. Rosenthal is a lifelong supporter of his hometown Oxford Utd. He wore an Oxford United hat whilst hosting the ITV coverage of the 1986 League Cup Final from Wembley Stadium and has been a member of the Oxford United board of directors.

On 17 June 2024, Northampton Town announced that Rosenthal had been appointed to the club's board of directors.

Jim's son, Tom, is a comedian who has starred in Friday Night Dinner on Channel 4 and Plebs on ITV2. Jim Rosenthal made a guest appearance as a commentator on a chariot race at the start of Plebs Series 2 and made a guest voice appearance as a Grand Prix Commentator in the Friday Night Dinner Series 4 episode "The Funeral".

PRESTON AND MARCH 30th AT THE DOUBLE

The Preston side of 1888-9 was not going to fail at the last hurdle. Playing in the newly formed Football League, the club won 18 and drew 4 of its 22 matches, 74 goals were scored for and 15 against. No other team could match the "Invincibles". 

Preston, on Saturday March 30th, did The Double, by winning the FA Cup 3-0 against Wolverhampton Wanderers, a team that came third in the League. Preston did not concede a single goal during their cup run and put on a wonderful show at the Oval, kicking off at a balmy 4pm, with 22,000 watching. Major Marindin reffed!

Wolves had beaten the Old Carthusians 4-3 in the First Round of the FA Cup, the old boys having been spared the four qualifying rounds. Preston, as a league member, were also spared the early rounds and beat Bootle 3-0, away at first. Then Preston met
Grimsby Town, who had waded their way through six qualifying games and five further rounds to meet the best team in the land. The were beaten 2-0 on the Lincolnshire coast.  Preston then beat Birmingham St George's 2-0 and West Bromwich in the semi-final 1-0. It might have been the OCs had ther old boys' side taken their chances.

So it was the first Double.The following season Preston won the League again, only two points ahead of Everton and lost in the quarter-final of the cup to Bolton Wanderers 2-3. From 1890-1 to 1892-3, Preston came second in the league but then in 1893-4 they came 14th out of the extended division of 16 teams. It was typical, that Major Sudell who had run the club like a dictator through the great period, was overthrown and in June 1893 the club was created into a Limited Company with a new board of directors. In 1895, the Major was charged with embezzling club funds, he was jailed and then emigrated to South Africa where he died in 1911. This rather spoilt the reputation of a man who set out to build the "finest team in the country" acquiring the best players in the game, which happened.

Players came and went with poor results that meant  the club had to play in a "Test Match" against Notts County at the end of the season to avoid the "drop" to the second division. Preston survived 4-0. Beneath Preston were Darwen and Newton Heath, both were relegated.

BTW keep an eye out for tomorrow's fun and games.....

29th MARCH ANNIVERSARY-PICKLES AND JULES

 There were a number of FA Cup Finals held on March 29th

1873 The Wanderers v Oxford University
1879 Old Etonians v Clapham Rovers. 1-0
1882 Old Etonians beat Blackburn Rovers
In 1883 Blackburn Olympic (not Rovers) won the cup beating the Old Etonians 1-0 to name a few.

On March 29th 1884, Blackburn Rovers began a period of Victorian dominance in English football, beating Queen's Park (yes the Scottish club) at the Oval, 2-1. 
The match was refereed by Major Francis Marindin, an Old Etonian, who reffed 8 finals. It was his 16th year as President of the FA, he was one of the founders of the FA Cup tournament, he helped found the Royal Engineers FC, and was an Officer Of Railways at the Board of Trade. He was knighted in 1897.

In 1885 (not March 29th!) Queen's Park met Blackburn Rovers again and Rovers won 2-0. Marindin reffed.

In 1886 (not 29th March) Rovers and WBA drew 0-0 the Cup Final first and Rovers won the replay 2-0. Marindin reffed.

On March 29th 1890, at the Oval, The Battle of the Roses took place, as an FA Cup Final was staged between Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday. It was the Rovers who won 6-1 in front of 20,000. With 9 internationals in their side, Bill Townley was one of them and he scored the first hat trick in an FA Cup final. Sheffield Wednesday were in the Football Alliance at the time. Marindin reffed.

In 1891, Marindin didn't ref, Rovers won the Cup for the 5th time, beating Notts County 3-1. James Forrest won his 5th Cup winners medal. He was the first professional to play for England.

Rovers won the Cup again in 1891 having dominated the Cup as professionals from 1882 when they lost their first final 1-0 to the Old Etonians.

Their next Cup Final was in 1928 when Rovers beat the Terriers (Huddersfield Town) 3-1 at Wembley packed with over a 92,000 crowd. By that time the League programme meant that Cup Finals were played in late April.
This was the first Cup Final since 1910 that BOTH SIDES scored. Rovers narrowly avoided relegation and Town were top dogs! being League Champions in 1924, 1925 and 1926 and runners up in 1927 and 1928.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2DWSkKukB0
Rovers then lost to Wolves in the 1960 Cup Final.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SmzON6BVFw

AND 

on March 29th Pickles the Dog, did better than the police force, by sniffing out the Jules Rimet Trophy after a week of "Bobby Dogging"!! This was following a good idea by the combined FIFA and FA, who decider to put the trophy on public display at the Westminster Central Hall in London. The trophy shared the space with an exhibition of rare postage stamps and was behind a lockled cabinet door and guarded by the local police force BUT not round the clock.  On March 20th, a day after the exhibition opened, during a period of "non observation", the cabinet holding the Trophy was found open, with screws carefully removed from the back of the show case, the thieves ambled off with no challenge!

A letter was sent to the FA, containing a ransom of £15,000 demanded in £5 and £1 notes for the trophy's return, which if not met would result in a "melt down" of the Jules Rimet!!

Then a man called Jackson, phoned the FA and changed the demand to £5 and £10 notes. A meeting was arranged in Battersea Park, between "Jackson" and an under cover officer, Detective Inspector Charles Buggy of the Flying Squad..."really"?? After this, Jackson got paranoid and a "chase" ensued with Buggy catching his "prey", but of course, the captured man was a local lad called Edward Bletchly, who did not have the trophy and could not be linked to the crime.

The following Sunday, PICKLES popped up and siffed the trophy from under a hedge in South Norwood. Within two days, the hero dog of the hour had been signed up by Associated Films Ltd, to star in a movie called "The Spy With the Cold Nose"!! starring alongside Eri.c Sykes (remember him?) and Denholm Elliot (and him?). 

Whilst these star colleagues went on to fame, PICKLES died an undignified death, hanging himself, by his lead on a local park tree, while he was chasing a cat in 1971! Meeeooww!!

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

 27th March 2021......70 YEARS AGO....you work it out!

Cardiff City's Chris Gunter made his full international debut for Wales in May 2007 in a friendly fixture against New Zealand. In 2018 the full-back overtook Neville Southall as the most capped Welshman when making his 93rd appearance for Wales, against China, a total that was helped by a remarkable run of 63 consecutive appearances for his country. On 27th March 2021 - by then he was a 31-year-old Charlton Athletic player - he became the first Welshman to win 100 caps for his country in a friendly against Mexico at the Cardiff City stadium. Sadly the Cardiff stands weren't full of fans to witness that great achievement. The attendance was 0......due to Covid! Aaaarrggh!! Still a record is a record.

Born 21 July 1989, he was capable of playing on both flanks but usually played on his preferred right side. Since 2023, he has been a coach for the Wales national team.

He joined Cardiff City's youth system and was signed by Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur for £4 million in January 2008. Rarely used at Tottenham, he returned to the Championship with Nottinhgham Forest, initially on loan, before joining Reading in 2012. He made 314 appearances for Reading before being released in 2020 and moving to Charlton Athletic and AFC Wimbledon.

Gunter was a Welsh international from Under 17 level and holds the record as the second youngest debutant for the Under 21 team. He made his full international debut in 2007, earning 109 caps in a 15-year international career. He was part of the Wales squad that reached the semi-finals at UEFA Euro 2016, also featuring at Euro 2020 and in the 2022 World Cup squad. In 2017 he was named Welsh Footballer of the Year. He beat Neville Southall's record of 92 caps in 2018, and in 2021 became the first Welshman to earn 100 caps.

 

Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2006–2008	Cardiff City	28	(0)
2008–2009	Tottenham Hotspur	5	(0)
2009	→ Nottingham Forest (loan)	8	(0)
2009–2012	Nottingham Forest	133	(2)
2012–2020	Reading	280	(2)
2020–2022	Charlton Athletic	54	(1)
2022–2023	AFC Wimbledon	31	(0)
Total		539	(5)
International career‡
2005–2006	Wales U17	11	(2)
2006	Wales U19	3	(0)
2006–2007	Wales U21	8	(0)
2007–2022	Wales	109	(0)
Managerial career
2023–2024	Wales (coach)
2024–	Wales U19
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 10:39, 9 May 2023 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 19:46, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

26th MARCH: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ODDS AND ENDS

 26th March 1986 & 2008

March 26th is a bit of a recurring date when it comes to international centurions in the British game. On 26th March 1986, at Hampden Park, Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish became the first Scottish player to win his 100th international cap. He was presented with the cap by World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer and was made Scotland's captain for the friendly match against Romania which Scotland won 3-0. Kenny played twice more for his country and those 102 appearances are still a record for Scotland. The 30 goals he scored in those matches is also a Scotland record, which he jointly holds with Denis Law. The 1000th goal of Scotland national team was scored by Gordon Strachan in the international match vs Romania.

also

In 1900,Geoffrey Wilson scored the 250th England international goal, on his debut,  in Cardiff against Wales. Wilson, born in Bourne! played for Corinthians, Casuals, 3 times for Southampton in the Southern League and London Hospital!! He became a surgeon and played Minor County cricket for Lincolnshire.

In 1910, the 50th goal of the Belgium national team, was scored by Désiré Paternoster in an international match vs England.

1986: The 1000th goal of Scotland national team was scored by Gordon Strachan in international match vs Romania.

2005: The 100th ever game of the Georgia national football team was held in Tbilisi vs Greece on this day. Greece won 0-3 the FIFA World Cup Group tie.

2016: Albania national team played its 300th international match in Vienna against Austria.

2008: The match Germany vs Switzerland in Basel was the 800th ever international match for Germany.

Twelve years later on March 26th 2008 a 32-year-old David Beckham won his 100th England cap. A LA Galaxy player at the time his day perhaps wasn't as memorable as that enjoyed by 'King Kenny'. The 32 year old lasted 63 minutes of what was a disappointing 1-0 friendly defeat in France before being substituted.  He wore golden boots against France to mark the occasion and before England's next match - at Wembley - he was was presented with a commemorative gold cap by Bobby Charlton.   He was the fifth England centurion at the time after Billy Wright, Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton and Peter Shilton and went on to increase his cap count to 115.