POOLS? FINE? IT'S BARELY A DROP IN THE OCEAN

After was baring his backside to Everton fans during a 1-1 draw with his club, Manchester City,  Joey Barton was fined £2000, a mere drop in the ocean for a young earner like him. This was took place on September 30th 2006.

45 years earlier, to the day, Viv Nicholson and her second husband, Keith, of meagre means, won the Pools, having places a 5 shilling bet and winning £15239, 18 shillings and 8 pence (£3.5 million in today's money). Bruce Forsyth presented the lucky pair with their cheque.

5 years later Keith was killed in a car crash and gradually, Viv, who could not cope with fame and fortune,  withered away, like her fortune and decided to join the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1976. She got dementia and died in April 2015.

Her life story was put into a book that she helped write and became a West End musical called "Spend Spend Spend" which won a BAFTA, This obit is worth a read........
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/celebrity-obituaries/11531195/Viv-Nicholson-pools-winner-obituary.html

TAUNTON TOWN TAUNT TRURO

While I was slumming it at Cambridge on Saturday, an old mate, called Richard Lewis, was wondering what the hell was going on at the Viridor Stadium, Taunton, where his home team took on local rivals Truro City in the FA Cup Second Round qualifying. The game ended 2-2 with two goals from Taunton hero, Jordan Rogers, which squared the game after Truro had taken the lead. They replay on Tuesday. Taunton have some fine history behind them, even though they only formed in 1947. They have been to two FA Vase finals, losing the first in 1994 and winning in 2001 beating Berkhamstead Town.

A few famous footballers have come out of the two rivals over the years, but not one as famous as Gerald “Gerry” Cakebread, a goalkeeper who made his name with Brentford FC between 1954-64 making nearly 350 apppearances for the west London club. Gerry was inducted into the Brentford Hall of Fame in 2015....did you know that they had one?

Why isn't Percival Whitton inducted too, since he played for Brentford in 1925-6 having had spells with Bristol Rovers, Aberaman Athletic and Newport County? Born in 1892 in Creech St Michael, he started his career at Taunton and made it to the big time briefly.

Truro City, from the National League South, on the other hand is steeped in history from 1889 when the club first played games at Truro School. They might be regarded as a bigger club than Taunton and have also won the Vase in 2007, but they have struggled to settle in a worthy stadium having been rejected by planners on several schemes. There have also been some funny business with financial dealings. They are hoping to get funding with the Cornish Pirates RFC to share a Stadium for Cornwall, where the Pirates and the Tinners can feel at home.

A trip to Margate awaits the winners of the replay. It's a long haul across the country. For what it's worth, Taunton Town have a better website than Truro and they play Godalming Town, my local club from before my migration north, in the FA Trophy on October 3^rd; it's another long haul for the Surrey lads. The motto "May we drive away" could well be an omen!

SLAM DUNK THE MOOSE

It took me 45 years to visit the Abbey Stadium, where Cambridge United took on Teddy Sheringham's Stevenage, in what could be described as a local derby. Having first had contact with Cambridge United through football at the University in 1970, I had never been to their ground. I had been to and played at Cambridge City FC though-a bit nearer to the college.

So an Alumni weekend proved a perfect opportunity for me and my college chums to have a snack at the Plough at Green End and then watch some footy. The pub backs onto the river Cam, into which many a college rower had met his/her doom during the bumps. Our "footballers' boat" nearly sank a mere few yards away from the gawfawing beer drinkers in the pub garden, during May Bumps one summer.

Having been bumped and sent towards a tree stump in the river bank and "holed", bow 4 had to jump out of the boat, wade to the river path and carry their oars home-a matter of a few miles past thousands of amused watchers. Stern 4 rowed the wounded eight back to the boat yard. We were not charged for the damage-all in the name of sport.

My buddies and I were treated later, to a League Two Feast of long ball and much maul, football. As we entered the tidy, yellow and black stadium, the players were warming up near a corner flag which as you know stands 5 feet out of the ground. Most of the players seemed to dwarf the post, suggesting that this was going to be a mighty battle of giants. It was. Two balls left the stadium, beginning their trajectory from a large centre back's clearance.

The good news was the home programme (£3) which told me much about the community and the club. Very positive, lots of stuff about helping people get into football and informative.

At half time, the pitch (which was also very good), was covered by local junior players in a 5 aside game, some grown up sponsors who tried to hit the waste bins with a ball from about 40 yards-difficult with boots on, harder in high heels and probably pissed!!

The club mascot, Marvin the Moose, why?, seemed overwhelmed by the presence of a sponsors' mascot (at least a bloke in a Bob the Builder uniform) who silently greeted us at the gates. Moose was not amoosed.

We didn't imbibe the local fayre having stuffed ourselves with "sticky chicken" and other delights at the Plough, so we cannot judge the club's pies or ale....they would have been cheaper than the Plough's menu easily!

So for £19 (concession entry), which is significantly more than Barnsley FC (£12 north-south divide), we got to enjoy seats with little leg room, have a view of 95% of the pitch-that height measuring corner flag was not in view and a bonus was an eye catching mature lady fan, in a white top and green support, seated a couple of rows behind us.

With university and schools in mind, we had the pleasure of seeing CU's Harrison Dunk, a Millfield School ex pupil and Independent Schools' player, who played against my old school, Charterhouse in 2008. I learned from the programme that Oxford United have signed Durham University's physics graduate Jonny Giles, perpetual motion. Added to that, Ronnie Henry, who is Ron Henry's nephew, played for the opposition.=; see previous blog.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-contents-of-claret-jug.html
It was an afternoon full of joy and good material for this blog!

I left Cambridge at 6am this morning, got to Huddersfield around 9.15, in time to watch Hepworth United Juniors U12 lose a very good game (2-4) to presently unbeaten Pudsey D! (in a Division 6 league match) who are top of the division. It has been a long day.

ITS NORMAL AND NOT GALLING

My roofer is Eddie, a good lad who manages to seal up the leaks and undo the errors, on a new extension that has been subject to the powerful winds and rain over the Pennines. So today he turned up wearing a sweat shirt emblazened with the Sheffield Athletic FC badge. There are several Sheffield sides and I was pleased to hear that this one was alive and well.

Knowing the value of Sheffield Football Clubs to footballing history, I got quite excited but discovered that his club was founded in 1999, so recent then! Whatever, I tried hard to sort out, which league he plays in, but short of finding out the Sheffield and Hallamshire League, I couldn't quite nail Athletic down.

Eddie tells me, has a left foot and could play left wing or centre mid, so I can imagine he would be a nippy, ankle clipping terrier- handy at tackling and also handy at solving slipped slates. Nice lad!

He did say that a mate of his was Nat Brown, presently a defender with Lincoln City and at 6'9” a seriously influential player who has journeyed from Huddersfield, to Wrexham and Macclesfield.

So that led me on to the Barnsley Chronicle, for no particular reason, but in the “Memories” section there was a reference to a Barnsley FC “Goal Blitz” in 1968, 47 years ago this weekend when Barnsley beat Brighton and Hove Albion on September 28^th at Oakwell before a crowd of 9189.

This was in the Third Division and I know some of these players who helped in the 4-0 win:

Barry Murphy-Penistone's local sports' hall administrator, Eric Winstanley, who worked for the Tykes after his retirement from playing and Roy Ironside, a sturdy goalkeeper.

Brighton had Norman Gall as centre half, at 5'9”, not a big man, a Geordie centre half, signed from Gateshead, who tailed off in his career at Horsham Town FC, yes, playing alongside ME when I was a nipper-well not alongside, he used to cover up for my mistakes! 

FANCY A DOUBLE SNOOZEBOX?

If you went down to the "training field" today you would be in for a great surprise!

At Swansea FC's academy, Landore, things have changed. Pre-season is especially different, with two sessions during the day, focussing on fitness in the morning from 10am and skills and strategy in the afternoon from around 5pm.
Things quieten down as the season rolls on but pre-season is vital and has to be thorough so teams can hit the ground running, so to speak.

The drone hovers above the pitches to give a bird's eye view of what is going on at pitch level.
Players will run between 10-12 kms a game and most of this is at speed and with changes in direction. Training is not just about long distance stamina runs. Everything has to be planned scientifically.

Wearing GPS, players are monitored through every step and groups of players are treated differently, depending on the their on field job. Concepts have to be put across and nobody can cheat-football preparation is transparent.

So when lunch comes round at 12.30 and the players have eaten their planned diet, it is off to the snoozebox or "pod" for a touch of shut eye. Some players could go home but with troublesome traffic and the sense of team spirit prevailing, the pod is a good place to get your head down until the late afternoon session.

Players are surrounding by gadgets that monitor their sleep patterns at home, the coaches are "miked up" and sessions are recorded and filmed for future reference. The hamstring tester, the ice baths, power structures and nutritionists all add to the fine margins that lie between success and failure at this premier level.

EDSON ARANTES DO NASCIMENTO-WHO?

Pele, as we know him is the subject of an art exhibition in London opening soon.

The Halcyon Gallery in London celebrates the 75^th birthday of world famous Brazilian Footballer by staging a luscious display of art work associated with the great man. 

Have a look at

https://www.facebook.com/Halcyon-Gallery-111511815552928/timeline/

http://www.halcyongallery.com/news/pele-announces-art-life-football-exhibition

Pele is the most famous footballer ever and his exploits between his World Cup debut in 1958 and his 1000^th competitive goal when playing for his home club Santos go down in folklore. Even then he continued to excite fans all over the world until he retired in 1977.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPQ_lV3Qnsg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVPM_5zi92s

SEPTEMBER IS A FINE MONTH

September proved to be a good month for Northern Ireland's David Healy, a striker who earned 95 caps and scored 36 goals for his country. He is the most capped Northern Ireland outfield player, only Pat Jennings (goalkeeper) holds more caps, 119.

In a UEFA European Championship qualifier match, Healy scored against Iceland on September 12^th 2007, equalling Davor Suker's record from 1996, when he totted up 12 goals in 10 games in UEFA qualifiers.

Two months later on the 17^th November 2007, against Denmark, Healy struck again making a total of 13 goals in 11 (the finals were held in 2008) and this beat the record.

On September 6^th 2006, in a famous 3-2 victory over Spain, Healy scored all three goals for his country in Belfast (the last man to do this was George Best) and later with a treble against Liechtenstein, he became the first Northern Ireland player to score two hat tricks at that level.

On the 7^th September 2005 he scored the only goal that beat England at Windsor Park (the first N. Irish victory anywhere against England since 1972) in a World Cup qualifier and in 2004, the one goal scored by Northern Ireland in a 1-4 defeat by Norway, was by Healy who ended his country's longest international goal drought of 2 years and 1298 minutes! Thirteen and a half matches. They had not won for 28 months! Then immediately Gillespie scored in his own net!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZVIHqzl910

In September 2004, he was sent off against Wales after scoring and making “hand gestures” to the crowd. He claims he was waving to his family.

In September 2000 against Malta he made his debut in a World Cup qualifier, his first competitive international. A month later he scored his first competitive international goal against Denmark.

He also played for 12 different English and Scottish league clubs, appearing 377 times and scored his 20^th international goal on the day of his 50^th cap. Healy was awarded his MBE in 2008 for services to football.

MATTHEWS MARVELS AS FINNEY FINISHES

21^st September 1947, Stanley Matthews produced a master-class of wing play in an international against Belgium, at the Heysel Stadium, in Brussels, when England won 5-2. This was the Belgian FA 50^th Anniversary Match. There was heavy rain and the stadium had been used as a tank park by the Germans during the war. Although it had been relaid, the pitch cut up and Matthews had a “field day”.

Matthews provided passes for all five goals, two of which were finished off by wing “rival” Tom Finney. Matthews had signed for Blackpool the previous season from Stoke for £11,500, a princely sum in those days. “The misery on the Belgian full back's face became more and more noticeable”, said Billy Wright, playing at centre half. Wright earned himself 105 caps in a long and fruitful career.

On the final whistle, all 60,000 and more fans stood and applauded Matthews off the field. Tommy Lawton scored two (the first after 15 seconds) and Stan Mortenson one.

This was the last game of a European tour that saw England beat Portugal 10-0, in which Finney was the star and Matthews scored a rare goal and a loss to Switzerland 0-1 in Zurich.

A JOURNEYMAN PLAYER, MANAGER AND TROUBLE MAKER?

Alan Pardew was in charge of Crystal Palace today when Spurs sneaked a win at White Hart Lane. The game went largely without incident, though this was mainly the fault of the two teams who did not present a particularly exciting spectacle. Pardew played for Spurs briefly whilst on loan to them in 1995, when he and a number of “older”players made up a Spurs XI that helped Tottenham contest ties in the Intertoto Cup. I think Spurs were “resting” their real squad, but were obliged to play fixtures in what was to them a meaningless tournament.

Pardew was a decent midfield who held the season's goalscoring record for Charlton once, scoring 10 goals. He did not add much to the Spurs' total that day they played FC Coln when the Germans drubbed Tottenham 8-0.

Pardew's beginnings were humble, playing at Whyteleaf in Surrey, Epsom and Ewell, Corinthian Casuals, Dulwich Hamlet in the Ryman's (or equivalent in those days) and then on to greater things with Yeovil, Palace, Charlton, Barnet and Reading. He has been around a bit! He also made the English Semi-Professional team. He made 484 full time appearances.

In 1990 he went to the FA Cup Final with Palace and lost, he took West Ham to the Cup Final in 2006 as manager and lost but he did get three promotions with Palace, Reading and the Hammers.

In 2011-12 he was awarded Premier League Manager and League Managers' Association Manager of the Year for his efforts with Newcastle United-a challenging period in his career.

He had previously been with Reading, West Ham, Charlton, Southampton and after his trip to the north-east he is now with Crystal Palace!

Since 2003 he has experienced several incidents including a High Court injuction served by Reading FC when he resigned from managing the club, wanting to go to West Ham. It was eventually dropped.

He had a dispute with Arsene Wenger for not picking an Englishman in his Arsenal team for a European Championship match, and Wenger accused him of being of xenophobic (Pardew is married to a Swede), he also provoked Wenger on the touchline after a West Ham league win against Arsenal, he “came between” two players fronting up on the pitch between Charlton and Hull and made matters worse, used the word “rapes” describing a coming together between Essien and of all people Ched Evans on MOTD2 (Pardew claims he said “rakes”), pushed an official on the touchline, alledgedly abused Man City's manager, Pelligrini, describing him as a “f** old c**, and finally head butted Hull's David Meyler.

He's a colourful character.

8 GOALS SHARED ON PRIMROSE HILL

On a sunny day, in latish September, when the Old Carthusians are playing the school (Charterhouse) in the annual, “friendly” exhibition of football, in its purist form, a fixture that has been played since 1864, I went to Newsome on Primrose Hill, a suburb of Huddersfield, where Hepworth Open Age 1^st XI joined in a 4-4 draw, which had almost everything bar a streaker, to entertain a small crowd watching from the verandah of the old cricket pavilion. That is a long sentence...does it make sense?

Primrose CC no longer exists but you could see the remnants of the square in the centre circle. It looked a dodgey wicket, and there was a pleasant club house and changing rooms. A green island midst a post war housing estate.

The two teams played their hearts out, the game had many talking points which I shared with the amusing locals, who had much to say about the ref, the injured goalkeeper, the penalty shouts and the lack of footballs-many disappeared over the wall into the old people's home.

Newsome FC was formed in 1999 and has dominated the Huddersfield and District League for a number of years. Their 1^st team ran away with the Premier Division last season (and several before), so have gone up to the pyramid , joining the Taylor's Timber West Riding League Division One (11^th tier). Hepworth played against what was Newsome's 2^nd XI; they have one other team in the reserve league. There is no junior or women's football.

After today's 8 goal thriller, Hepworth have played 6, won 2 drawn 4 unbeaten with a four goal difference. Newsome are one point behind having lost once, with same GD. Cheers Jerry! We were well entertained.

p.s. I did not get to share the hospitality box in the high rise block behind the goal.

LET THERE BE LIGHT

Tomorrow evening will see the anniversary of the first official match to be played under floodlights at Highbury on September 19th 1951. Herbert Chapman had the idea to play under lights having seen this happen in Belgium, before the War, so he had some built. The Football League typically did not like the idea of floodlit matches, deeming the cost a disadvantage (today a match was cost about £300 for electricity-that's only 50 pies and pints), so the stuffed shirts did not give permission for league games to be lit. No wonder looking at these chaps (or chimps) at Cardiff City!

The match at Highbury was a friendly against Israeli club HapoelTel Aviv, which the Gunners won easily 6-1. 44,000 fans saw Tom Whittaker's team give an illuminated exhibition and everyone had fun. See below the scene at Highbury.

South Liverpool had lights at Holly Park in 1949 and Headington (now Oxford) United in 1950

The Dell had floodlights built permanently in October 1950 and they were first used by the Saints against Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic in a friendly, whilst the use of lights at Swindon Town against Bristol City on 2^nd April 1951 claims to be one of the first sanctioned matches.

The first FA Cup tie under lights was between Kidderminster Harriers and Brierley Hill Alliance on 14^th September 1955.

The first floodlighting in an international in England took place at Wembley on November 30^th 1955 against Spain, which the home team won 4-1, with the lights on for the final 15 minutes. However the first floodlit match at out national stadium was on October 26th 1955 between teams etched from London and Frankfurt.

On the 22^nd February 1956 at Fratton Park, Portsmouth played Newcastle United in the first league game to be held under lights after the FA changed their mind in June 1955.

By this time Wolverhampton Wanderers had the bright idea and made money by inviting a South Africa XI to their ground and even the great European sides such as Honved and Moscow Spartak to play exhibition matches at Molyneaux.

The last club to install lights in the FLeague was Chesterfield, as late as 18^th October 1967.

Lighting can be dated back to 1878 at Bramall Lane and even further back to Darwen FC who had lighting of sorts installed to help them play during the dark months.

Have a look at http://footysphere.com/tagged/floodlights for even more stuff to brighten your day.

TOTTENHAM SPURRED ON TO BEAT THE HORSEMEN

If I can persuade the landlord of the Boot and Shoe to switch on the Europa League matches this evening, I may watch Tottenham play the well known Azerbaijani Champions, Qarabag FK, in a Europan league tie. Qarabag are known as the Horsemen. You may already see where this is going, Tottenham will have to dig their Spurs in......

Playing in the Topaz Premyer Liqasi which was formed in 2007, Qarabag now plays in a stadium of 5,800 seats in the capital Baku. The club used to be located in Agdam but due to the war and the intervention of Armenia, it moved to the relative safety of Baku. (see map please)

It is the third time the team has won the premier title and Qarabag is the first team to reach the Europa League Play Offs. Average league crowds in the country range between 1,000 to 2,200, so if there is a full stadium tonight, it might be a national record.

Topaz is a betting operator and the company has invested in the league since 2007. Prior to that (1992-07) the league was known as the Professional Footballers' League and the change in “ownership” has given the clubs more independence, apparently.

Qarabag is known as the “Barcelona of the Caucasus”, since they play so technically, which may create a few problems for the Spurs-doubtful. This notoriety and the fact that they are the national champions, has enabled the club to be included in the simulation game “Pro Evolution Soccer 2015”.

The most successful club in the national league is Netfchi Baku, winners of the league title 8 times.

Azerbaijan is ranked 110^th in FIFA and has played international football since 1912.

SIX LEGS, FOUR LEGS, TWO LEGS: LEG IT!

Ironically, I brought the world of nasty football injuries to my public yesterday (15^th September) and low and behold, Luke Shaw got on the end of a rough tackle and he's now out of business. Not pretty and very sad for him having made his mark at club and national level.

I also mention the great Ron Springett a couple of days ago (14^th September) and in the DTelegraph today, his obituary revealed some great snippets about animals and footballers, leading to injury also.

In 1962 during a World Cup quarter-final against Brazil in Vina del Mar Chile, a black dog wandered on to the pitch when Springett and the very famous and able winger, Garrincha, tried to catch it. Jimmy Greaves came to the rescue, got down on all fours, attracted the dog and grabbed the beast, when it relieved itself on the England “fox in the box”. The Brazilians saw the animal as a lucky mascot winning 3-1 and Garrincha adopted it, Greavsie was less impressed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPUMFGbOLQw

Another hazard in Chile apparently were venomous spiders, so Springett and England captain, Johnny Haynes, for fun, bought some fake arachnids from a joke shop. They were found by the players in their hotel beds, but one of the “toys” was actually moving, which prompted the England captain to run out of the hotel to the training pitch where he was bitten by a dog. Not Garrincha's!!

Springett was not shocked by the creature, being he was short sighted, he saw it, but he found floodlighting a problem when in goal, as he was susceptible to long shots, which cost him his place in the England team, after letting in 5 goals under lights against France in 1963!!

A STITCH IN TIME

Poor old Jack Wilshere is going through a terrible time with the latest delay to his leg recovery after a break. It may be his running style or his competitive nature that is causing him pain.

But let's not get too upset by this, compared to Steven Gerrard's “little”problem documented in new book, when he talks about his horrific penis injury. Sorry if I am upsetting any of my dozens of readers, but it is now public and you can even see the occasion at Bournemouth, when he blocked a cross by Harry Arter and ended up with a jab and four stitches in his JT.

Gerrard thought he might be saying “Goodbye to an old friend” especially when he knew that the club doctor who was inserting four stitches to the gash, had just been stapling Martin Skirtel's head following a incident earlier in the game. The video is watchable.....THE PICTURE IS NOT RELATED TO THE ACTUAL INCIDENT, Don't quite know what is going on there??

http://www.joe.co.uk/sport/the-challenge-that-caused-steven-gerrards-horrific-penis-injury-has-been-found-video/15238

Below is a list of bizarre football injuries, some you will have remembered and some better forgotten.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/2377/top-10/2010/08/29/2093019/top-20-bizarre-football-injuries

Other silly incidents have occurred like this coming together with Kevin de Bruyne, the Belgian international, who sustained midrift pain during a league game for Wolfsburg against Augsburg in October 2014. His team did win in the end, but fancy being hit in the crown jewels by a pink boot.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2781418/Kevin-Bruyne-gets-boot-flung-private-parts-Wolfsburg-win.html

SPRINGETT DIES

When I were a lad there were a few great goalkeepers playing league football and for their country. Eddie Hopkinson was one, Alan Hodgkinson another and one that played a lot for England Ron Springett. Ron died on the 13th September aged 80 and he will be remembered by Sheffield Wednesday fans and QPR fans alike. Only 5'10" tall he was one of several small keepers who made their careers successful  by having great agility.
His career began with QPR in 1953, after trialling with Fulham. At this "try out" Springett said that he and another keeper shared the same goal with Johnny Haynes shooting at them and sometimes between them, it was a farce. So Ron decided he would have a go at Loftus Road. QPR were in the
Third Division South then. At his trial he broke a finger but got selected!

In 1958 he moved to Wednesday and played 384 times for the Yorkshire club, eventually returning to QPR with his brother Peter, also a keeper, going the other way as part of the deal. Overall Ron played 147 times for the west London club. In 1959 he made his England debut.

Whilst at Wednesday he played in the 2-3 defeat by Everton in the 1966 Cup Final and was also part of the England squad for the 1966 World Cup though he never played, being held out by Gordon Banks,  Ron did play in the 1962 World Cup and notched up 33 appearances for his country.

In 1966, only the World Cup winners who played in the match received medals and it took until 2007 for the FA to persuade FIFA to give medals to all squad members. This happened and Gordon Brown presented the medal to Springett at Downing Street in a special ceremony.
FIFA made medals for all other squad members of previous World Cup winners!! (so that's where the money went??!! Seb??)

Ron Springett had a testimonial in 1967 at Hillsborough with 23,000 fans turning up to watch a Sheffield derby.

On retiring from football, he ran a sports' shop in the Uxbridge Road and then became an interior decorator.

A NEW SEASON BEGINS ON HERITAGE DAY

My Under 12 s lost 3-4 today in their first league game in Division 6 of the Huddersfield and District Junior League. Sad because if you score 3 you would like to think you would win! But Ossett Town U12s were impressive (this was their C team by the way) and fair enough we live to fight on next weekend at Greetlands...where ever that is?

Ossett, somewhere between Wakefield and Dewsbury, has two senior teams, Town and Albion and they both play in the Northern Premier League Division One North, definitely part of the pyramid.

Town was founded in 1936 by the Mayor, who as a local referee, wanted the highest standard of football possible for his town. Albion was formed after the war. Town played in various leagues until the restructuring and after starting in the Leeds League, one of the nicest they must have been in was the Heavy Woollen League, that they graced for a while.

In the Yorkshire League, as they made progress, they played professional clubs reserve teams so players such as Dennis Law, Tommy Taylor and Jackie Charlton would have played in the Ingfield in their time.

By selling their start player, Derrick Blackburn, to Swansea in 1957 for £1350, the club was able to buy the land and build their new ground at Ingfield, now called the 4G and Data Stadium.
in 1988 Manchester United came across the Pennines to play a pre-season friendly to open the new floodlights and in 2001-2, the club missed promotion to the Northern Premier because their ground improvements were completed 12 hours after the deadline-pedantic.

So, well done Ossett Town (and Albion), we had a charming game against your lads today and the save your keeper made in the final minutes to stop us equalising was magnificent.
"THAT WHICH IS USELESS IS MADE USEFUL THROUGH SKILL" the coat of arms has all the great things known to Ossett in history. The unicorn is the nickname of the Albion!

I'LL HAVE A BAILEY'S THANKS

It is the FA Cup week “again” and this time I went to the nearest venue which happened to be Glossop North End FC and twenty five minute drive to the Arthur Goldthorpe Stadium. Very nice it was too. The home team took on Skelmersdale United FC who live in a higher division of the Northern League (Premier) and should really have won, but as cup ties usually bring out the best in teams, Glossop got stuck in, survived a few narrow misses and scored towards the end of a busy second half. Then after a skermish in the corner, which I could not quite see, the ref gave a loud blast on his Acme Thunderer, to which the few hundred Derby crowd cheered with great joy thinking it was the end of a tough tie, but actually the ref blew for a foul in the Skelm right back area, so they took the kick quick and ended up with a counter-attacking move to score an equaliser in the Glossop right back area. Not many could believe it; 1-1 and a replay in the offing.

This is the beauty of Non-League Football.

1. A great drive across the Pennines to the town of Glossop.
2. No pressure to get into the ground for £4 + a raffle ticket and a programme...add £2.
3. Real ale in the bar (£2.50 a pint) with great memorabilia hanging on the walls-mainly about Glossop's various visits to Wembley for the FA Vase finals.
4. Good pie, mushy peas, gravy-cheap-cheap too.
5. No pressure on where I stood,sat,leaned in the ground.
6. Local banter with old boys in cloth caps and with dogs on leads. All were wearing Hillman scarves that say FA Vase Final blah blah.

I then had a nice drive home in the company of another “anorak” who I met at the match, but who is serious writer of blogs and websites based on local league football. He wanted to get back to Sheffield, so I gave him a lift to Penistone station, rather than the train route he would have taken which was westwards from Glossop to Manchester and then eastwards to the steel city. I must have saved him a few minutes of Saturday post game travel time.

Have a look at the website for theRealFACup and listen to the Non-League Football programme on Five Live. It does go out at 5am on Sunday mornings! He was called BAYLEY! and the Glossop goalscorer was also a Bailey!! Coincidence or what!!!

The chimney below used to emit all sorts of nasty pollutants, but I am led to believe that it is now defunct. if anyone wants it for scrap, it it available for demolition. Fred Dibnah eat your heart out.

THE 400th POST

I was whizzing past many Worcestershire football pitches yesterday midday, on a 290 mile return journey, when I realised that I was not going to be able to entertain my 12 and a half readers yesterday Sorry! here are two for the price of one.

But did you know that the first Football League's goal was thought to be scored on September 8^th 1888 by Aston Villa's Gershom Cox, unfortunately the ball went in the wrong end and therefore also qualifies as the League's first ever o.g.

Luckily Villa equalised against the Wolves and the game ended in a 1-1 draw. Interesting!

This record still is not entirely secure since kick offs in those days were staggered (not for TV rites or alcohol control), don't know why? Probably ineffective time keeping?). Preston's Freddie Dewhurst scored a legitimate goal after only three minutes in a 5-2 victory over Burnley but they kicked off 50 minutes later than Villa.

More interestingly, the FA Cup was stolen on September 11^th 1895, again this involved Aston Villa. They held the trophy having beaten West Brom 1-0 in the final and the club put it on public display in William Shillcock's sports' shop in Birmingham. That night it was nicked and despite an amazing £10 reward offered by the club, it was never returned. This cup had the engraving of all the early winners from 1872, including my beloved Old Carthusians.

It was replaced by an exact copy of the original and Villa forked out £25 to cover costs.

LONG MAY SHE REIGN BUT SHE DON'T DO TICKETS

Long live the King....Wayne, that is and long live our Queen, Elizabeth of course. Her reign and Wayne's have both overtaken the people's favourites this week. Wayne pushed Bobby in second place on Tuesday at Wembley and our Queen nipped past Victoria today. Bless her.

Elizabeth's long reign began on the 6^th February 1952 but her first FA Cup Final was not until Blackpool-Bolton in 1953.

Victoria's first footballing experience would have been during the close season (20^th June 1837) had there been any official football played at that time. Northwich Victoria, founded in 1874, was named after the great lady, so I guess she has had some influence on her national sport.

When Victoria died on the 22^nd January 1901, the following Saturday's FA Cup Ties were postponed as mark of respect, but this did not stop Tottenham from marching on to win the trophy as a Southern league side and later in the year Liverpool took the First Division title.

Teams in the top division that year included Notts County, Bury and The Wednesday.

In the Second Division, won by Grimsby Town, and I am doing this for my loyal readers, the following teams were part of the structure:

Small Heath and Newton Heath (who did they eventually become?), Glossop (not with a North End because of Preston's prowess), Woolwich Arsenal (the Gunners), Burslem Port Vale (there is no place called Port Vale), Leicester Fosse, Gainsborough Trinity, Burton Swifts and for Jerry-Chesterfield were in the league then! Stockport County played their first season and Blackpool were reinstated at the expense of Loughborough and Luton Town, who were not re-elected.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/443780/SNAPPED-Arsenal-fan-letter-from-Queen-after-asking-FA-Cup-Final-tickets

MORE AND MORE FOR BOBBY MOORE

Robert Frederick Chelsea “Bobby” Moore (born 12^th April 1941) at the age of 17 made his senior debut for West Ham on September 8^th 1958 against Manchester united. The Hammers won 3-2. he then went on to make 646 appearances for his club.

He joined the youth team in 1956 at 15 years old and two years later, Malcolm Allison's illness opened the door for Moore to step in as a centre half.

In 1961 he was made captain and he earned a reputation for being a technically gifted and intelligent footballer. Although West Ham never made it to the top of the division, the club did win the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners Cup in 1965 winning 2-0 over 1860 Munich. In 1966, West Ham also reached the final of the League Cup losing 3-5 on aggregate to WBA. 

Then, of course, Moore led his country to victory in the 1966 World Cup Final. Who will forget the moment Moore lifted the World Cup from the Queen at Wembley? He thoughtfully wiped his hands clean of the match's sweat and soil, on the velvet cloth decorating the royal box front! She was wearing white gloves.

With all that success in 1966 he was voted BBC Sports' Personality of the Year and presented with the OBE.  He was also the subject of the TV programme “This is your Life”.

Moore stayed at West Ham until 1974, when he moved to Fulham and then had spells in the USA and Denmark before retiring in 1978.

He retired from international football after winning 109 caps and was voted into the World Team of the 20^th Century, being cited by Pele as the best defender he had played against. Many will have seen his “perfect tackle” against their speedy Jairzinho, in a match against Brazil in the 1970 World Cup match.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=72z5H9hkYGM

Management did not suit him and he worked in media for a while.

Moore also played cricket for Essex County schools' cricket in the same team as Geoff Hurst.

In 1991 he had an operation to remove a cancer but in February 1993 he announced he had cancer again and then a few days later he helped his friend Jonathan Pearce commentate on an international match against San Marino; Moore died 7 days later aged 51.

He leaves a massive legacy notably the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer and his statue looks down Wembley Way, a path he would have taken many times.

GIVE WAYNE SOME CREDIT.

When Wayne Rooney finally beats Bobby Charlton's England goalscoring record, we shall all breathe a sigh of relief. But remarkably, Wayne has equalled Bobby in exactly the same number of games, 106, at a rate of 0.46 goals per game. Charlton scored 22 in friendlies against Rooney's 14 and Charlton did score in the Home Championship, defunct in Rooney's time. Some might regard those as "easy" pickings??

This is an era of modern fit footballers, high defensive strategy and usually difficult opposition, although one could argue that England, back in the day, did not meet San Marino and the like.

Between 1903-1911 England played Ireland, Scotland and Wales only until 1908, when some friendlies with Austria, Bohemia and Hungary were arranged on a European tour. Four matches aggregated 28 goals from these “emerging nations” and Vivian Woodward scored six. An amateur playing for Spurs and Chelsea, he is regarded as England's most efficient scorer at 1.26 goals per game.

Steve Bloomer almost matched that between 1895-1907 (1.22) but this was only against the Home countries.

In the post War era, Stan Mortensen, the only player to score a Wembley Cup Final hat trick (for Blackpool in 1953), struck at a rate of 0.92 between 1947-53, appearing in 25 internationals, but that did include a 10-0 whitewash of Portugal in Lisbon, when Stan scored 4. In this period, he did have Matthews and Finney supplying him with delicious crosses.

Other greats were Nat Lofthouse, an old fashioned centre-forward from Bolton (1950-58) at 0.91, who was playing at a time when England was being found out by continental opposition and tactics and Jimmy Greaves 0.78 in 57 games who missed the finale of the 1966 World Cup and surely would have gained more fame had he been fit.

Gary Lineker 0.6 in 80 games and Geoff Hurst 0.49 in 49 games bring us into the modern era with Alan Shearer 0.48 in 63 games, a more efficient rate than Wayne and Bobby.

Messi at 0.46 and Ronaldo 0.45 put this all into perspective. It is quite an achievement.

Frank Lampard needs a special mention, scoring 29 from midfield and Michael Owen notched 40.

Own goals gets 49!!

That says a lot for our attacking prowess and ability to put defences under pressure!!

TERRIERS RICH IN HISTORY

We have people staying in our house next door and they are bringing two Bedlington terriers. You know what I mean, sheep faced, curly haired dogs, well behaved, like all dogs are, know what I mean.

I am sure they will have a very nice stay in the Pennines. Bedlington is a mining village north of Newcastle on Tyne, near Blyth and Morpeth.

In 1949 Bedlington Mechanics formed a football team and by 1950 they were called the Bedlington Colliery Welfare, marking their origins from the Doctor Pitt mine nearby. The team became known as Bedlington United and then disbanded in 1963, reforming three years later, playing at the Welfare Park.

In 1993 they took on the Terriers name and this sparked the club into success as they got through to the second round proper of the FA Cup beating Colchester Utd on the way, 4-1 and eventually losing out to Scunthorpe. (you can put the “t” in Britain....).

In this period they also got to the Wembley Final in the FA Vase missing out on a famous victory 0-1 to Tiverton Town.

An arson attack on the clubhouse and some financial difficulties left the club in a bit of a dog house. So Robert Rich, an American, and 488^th richest man in the world became their the fairy godfather. Why?

His wife bought him the Lordship of the Manor of Bedlington in 2010, a meaningless honour but one that attracted him and her to the football (sorry, soccer) club. She had been tracing his family tree and found a relative so one thing led to another.

He already owned a few baseball teams including the Buffalo Bisons and the Jamestown Jammers-so with the goodness of his heart, he paid for the renovation of their pitch at Welfare Park, financed an electronic scoreboard and nice sponsored kit, holding the name of his company-Rich Food Products. There was also a USA tour and a TV documentary called “Mr Rich and the Terriers” in 2011.

In 2013 the club faced more debt but he was not prepared to put his hand into his pocket, so somehow they survived, because the club is still performing in Division One of the Northern League, alongside Ashington, West Auckland Town and North Shields, so they can't be bad.

You have to see this video. Woof Woof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22JJ7qmSBPs

SAN MARINO, AN ENCLAVED MICROSTATE

San Marino, more famous for its named Grand Prix F1 rather than football is ranked 297^th in FIFA's rankings, equal to Bhutan and the Turks and Caicos islands. Actually the F1 race takes place at Imola, not in San Marino.

In November 1993, Davide Gualtieri scored the fastest goal in World Cup history, after Stuart Pearce under hit a back pass after 8.3 seconds of a qualifier at Wembley. The goal scorer dined out on that for the rest of his career and at 41, he is a computer salesman, who speaks no English and has his wife translate for him when he is interviewed, every time his country draws England in a competition.

So far the two countries have met five times with scores at 6-0, 1-7, 5-0, 0-8, 5-0 (all England wins, home and away).

When England thumped San Marino 7-1 in 1993 the team was:

Seaman, Dixon Pallister Walker Pearce Ripley Ince Platt Sinton Wright Ferdinand. Not exactly convincing is it?

Today Wayne Rooney scored his 49^th international goal from the penalty spot, to take his country to 1-0 in the Stadio Olimpico and he equals Bobby Charlton's record. It is half time so we don't yet know what's going to happen next! I suspect he will score again.

The first unofficial international SM played was in 1986 v a Canadian Olympic side and the first official international against Switzerland was in 1990, they didn't win.

They have played 114 times, won 1 drawn 5 and lost the rest obviously. Goals For 19 Against 473. The one win was against Liechenstein in a friendly.

They did recently draw with Estonian 0-0 in the European Qualifying competition.

San Marino have twins playing in goal and at centre back-their understanding is not as good as it should be. One of their players could not play because of a staffing problem in his bar, so he pulled out!

With a population of only 31,000 you would think he could find a temporary barman?

'TIS ALL IN THE NAME

It is FA Vase time, when the smaller clubs have their moment of glory. Let's put the FA Cup and Trophy on the back burner and ignore the likes of the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Cyprus and San Marino, giving our “home” nationals squads a bit of a test. We have some serious business to attend to, the Vase.

Glasshoughton Welfare were the victors over the victors of my local side Penistone Church FC, so best of luck to them at Vauxhall Motors. Esh Winning seems like a bit of an omen; put yer teeth back in Cyril. Esh Winning, from Durham, originated in 1889 but formally gathered together a s this club in 1967. They mix and match amongst some of the better North-eastern clubs, such as Crook Town and Norton and Brandon Ancients.

If you are a regular reader (that is, one of the 20 or so that do have a look) then you will remember the Northampton Old Northamptonians Chenecks...what? Read previous blog! They are playing Sun Postal Sports (founded originally as Sun Engraving in 1898, they amalgamated with Watford Postal Services FC in 1901). Bugbrooke St Michaels make another appearance in the round and Royal Wootton Bassett Town (the military town) must have more repeated letters in the club name any others are at home to Binfield-sadly boring, whereas Tadley Calleva has a bit of magic to it. The name stems from nearby Roman town, Calleva Atrebatum, their home ground Barlow's Park is built on an old landfill site and Reading FC Ladies use the pitch too.

Bridon Ropes (founded in 1935 from a Rope factory team in Charlton) won the London Senior Cup in 2014 beating the Corinthian Casuals 2-1. They don't give me much to hang on and are home to Holmesdale (not away to Awaysdale).

On the Sunday, Worthing United are at home in West Sussex to East Preston FC, kicking off at 5pm, not a very long away from the Shoreham Airshow disaster that took two of their young players-it will be a challenging time for the club.

Last week FA Cup teams were encouraged to donate part of their match winnings to the fund raised for the young lads memorial. Give them a thought at 5pm on Sunday afternoon. The winnings will be £600 per match, so maybe some of that will find its way through to the fund?

WAR SUSPENDS FOOTBALL

In 1939-40, the 48^th Football League season started on August 26^th. Blackpool was leading the First Division when play was suspended when war broke out. 

The Southern League and Northern League kept going as best they could, but matches were often postponed. Luton Town headed the 2^nd Division, Accrington Stanley the 3^rd North and Reading the 3^rd South.

It was on September 2^nd (yes I know today is the 3^rd) 1939, that football grounds all over the country were jammed packed full. On the 1^st the Germans had invaded Poland. Whilst the crowds left their various stadia, chatting about the game, they soon began to realise that there was a threat of war. That weekend would see the last competitive football in the country for SIX years. Britain declared war on Germany and all organised football was cancelled. There would be morale boosting exhibition games but the leagues and cups were suspended.

Exhibition games were regarded as important to the nation with money raising, recruiting and lifting morale. A sport, once only regarded as the game of the masses, was suddenly appreciated by the “Establishment”. In April 1940 when England played Wales Princess Alice and Princess Helene Victoria were in the Royal Box. On October 4^th 1941, when the Scots visited Wembley to play an England XI, the Prime Minister and seven of his cabinet attended; England won.

JUMPING THROUGH THE WINDOW

If you think the Berahino's transfer is a mess, then have a read of this one.

Middlesbrough concluded a last gasp deal worth around £2.6m , with Uruguay champions Nacional less than a hour before the transfer window slammed shut after a tense transAtlantic race against time.

23 year old, Carlos De Pena’s registration was owned by two parties - common in Latin America - there was also a row between them over whether to accept the Boro bid for one of Uruguay’s hottest prospects.

The on-off move was finally completed at Heathrow Airport after Nacional’s chief negotiator made a 7,000 mile 14 hour flight through the night.

But the player was not on the plane. He was forced to stop off in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo where he took a medical hastily arranged after a phone call to past Boro icon Juninho, who helped.

He had signed all his paperwork though and so the registration formalities could be concluded in his absence.

He has an Italian passport so will not need a work permit but Boro must now apply for international clearance, which is a formality.

Aitor Karanka, Middlesbrough's manager said “He is a winner, he is experienced - he’s played in the Copa Libertadores - and I am really pleased because he will be a good signing for us.”

But the deal for De Pena, a left sided winger, who has scored 10 goals in 53 games, almost collapsed several times.

His economic rights are owned jointly by the club and by the Paco Casal Group. Casal is an ex-Atletico Madrid player turned agent who is one of the most influential figures in the Uruguayan game.

He visited Rockliffe over the weekend to thrash out a deal with Boro chiefs and it appeared the move would go smoothly.

The players was at the airport yesterday ready to fly in to sign - but Nacional directors intervened to block the move as they did not believe the fee was high enough for their key player.

Twice they ordered De Pena not to get on flights and when ordered home he was involved in a car crash - with he and his mother needing treatment.

When in hospital the situation changed again and he was told to return to the airport, but time was running out - and it seemed with just a two hour window after landing at Heathrow there would be no time for a full medical.

So he and a senior Nacional official jetted to Sao Paulo where he used the medical facilities used by Juninho’s club Ituano for his tests while the negotiator flew on.

Even while the flight was airborne the deal faced turbulence as news of the controversial move broke in Uruguay.

It lead to a backlash among the club’s 60,000 members and a political faction fight in the Nacional boardroom. But the player insisted he wanted to go and the club reluctantly accepted it.

ITS GOLD FOR GB, WITHOUT THE PENALTY

On September 1^st 1920 at the Antwerp Olympics, Spain met Sweden and both teams were just two wins away from a medal.

Spain were 0-1 down when they fought back to win 2-1 and Sweden missed a penalty late in the game. Both teams were violent in their play and Spain finished the game with 8 players and Sweden with 7 because of the number of injuries sustained-note, not sendings off.

There were no subs in those days.

One Spanish newspaper describe the match as “the most barbaric and brutal...”

Spain went on to defeat Holland in the second place final, claiming the silver medal. Belgium won gold and the Netherlands bronze, with 14 teams starting.

Norway, a truly amateur side, beat Great Britain in the first round 3-1. There were concerns shown during this tournament of blatant professionalism with “expenses” being paid out in large anounts to various players. This flew in the face of Olympian spirits.

In the final, the Czechoslovakia side were so disgusted with the refereeing of an Englishman, 65 year old John Lewis, that they walked off the pitch after 40 minutes, when one of their players was “ejected” from the match and therefore, forfeited their chance of winning a medal. The Czechs also objected to an English linesman and to the inclusion of Belgian (home team) soldiers in the crowd, whom they claimed became intimidating and affected the way the Czechs played!

As a result of this disruption, the Spain-Netherlands match became the tie for second place.

In contrast, in the 1912 Olympics, the Great Britain side deliberately missed a penalty in their semi-final, that they thought had been unfairly awarded. Vivian Woodward, as captain, showed typical Corinthian Spirit as his team eventually won the gold medal, retaining their title from 1908.

The team only played three matches beating Hungary 7-0 (Harold Walden scored 6 goals), Finland in the semi and then Denmark in the 4-2 win for gold.

In the London Olympic tournament of 1908, Great Britain joined with 7 other teams including France A and France B. Hungary eventually withdrew due to the Bosnian Crisis, Bohemia lost their FIFA status and had to resign, GB beat Sweden 12-1 in the quarter-final and Denmark beat France A 17-1 in the semi-final (Sophus Neilsen scored 10 goals) (in the Danish team was the famous mathematician Harald Bohr, apparently). All a bit chaotic then.

GB beat Denmark 2-0 in front of 2,000 people at the White City and guess who reffed?? a man called Lewis!

In 1900 and 1904 there were odd matches but not recognised by FIFA. There is even a reference to football in the first modern Olympics of 1896, but this is not regarded as official.