TWO MORE FOOTBALL LEAGUE FOUNDERS

Two more clubs from the original Football League play today-Stoke City v Aston Villa, the 100th league meeting of the two clubs. Stoke founded by Old Carthusians, https://sites.google.com/site/carthusianfootball, reputedly. Stanley Matthews, one of the greats, is remembered by this three stage statue showing his characteristic swerve and cross. On my recent visit to see a league game against West Ham, I met the Stoke City photographer at the statue. He told me that each statue had a different shirt; one for Stoke, his first and last club, one for Blackpool, with whom he made his name in the FA Cup Finals of 1948, 1951 and 1953 and finally, of course, the England shirt. Stanley Matthews, in 1984, coached the Charterhouse School 1st XI at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. That's where the Carthusian link with Stoke becomes stronger!!