ST ANDREW FLIES THE INTERNATIONAL FLAG

Suitably, the first international ever played was between Scotland and England at Hamilton Park, Partick on November 30th (St Andrew's Day) 1872. The oldest surviving shirt is the one worn by English international Arnold Kirke Smith in this game. The match was drawn 0-0, 4,000 people came to watch (the next time the two teams drew 0-0 was in 1970) . The diversity of players in the English team led them to play very much as individuals, often following different "laws" of the game. The Scots were far more unified.

In 1870 the "father of football" Charles Alcock, then the FA Secretary, placed an advert in the Glasgow Herald, calling for a "trial of skill between the champions of England and Scotland". One member of the Queen's Park team played alongside ten Scottish footballers from English Public Schools. On March 5th 1870 a trial match bewteen the two countries was played and there were four more trial matches before the official competition at the West of Scotland Cricket Club in Partick.

The Queen's Park goalkeeper and captain, Bob Gardner picked Scottish players, all of whom had an affiliation with his club, and the England captain Cuthbert Ottoway from Oxford University selected his team from nine clubs, including, three of his mates from Oxford, and single players from Cambridge University, Crystal Palace, the 1st Surrey Rifles regt, Barnes, Hertfordshire Rangers, The Wanderers, The Sheffield Club (Sheffield Wednesday) and The Notts Club (Notts County).

Alcock "umpired" with HN Smith of Queen's Park and W Keasy of Queen's Park was the referee.
After thematch the teams had dinner in Garrick's Royal Hotel in George Square.

A spectacular overhead by the Scot, William Mackinnon.

VIV THE WHIZZ

November 29th 1978 saw the first "start" by an English black player when Viv Anderson was picked to play against Czechoslovakia at Wembley in a 1-0 win. An attacking full back, he created the opening for Tony Currie, who passed to Steve Coppell who score the only goal.

Playing for Nottingham Forest in the last 1970s, he was part of a very successful club side that took Europe by storm. Born in Nottingham in 1956, he won 20 caps between the late 70s and 1980. In 1995 he was put in the English Footballers' Hall of Fame.

Arthur Wharton (see previous blogs) in 1886, a goalkeeper, was the earliest recorded black professional player to play football, beginning his career in 1885 at Darlington, joined the great Preston North End team and ending at Stockport County in 1902. He arrived in England in 1882 to train as a Methodist missionary but turns to athletics instead. He also cycled and played cricket for local teams. 

He became a landlord of the Albert Tavern in Rotherham, another club he turned out for, went to Sheffield United briefly but did play in the First division against Leicester Fosse, thus being the first mixed race player to play at that level. At this stage he was understudy to William Fatty Faulke, who was the main choice. His statue stands at St George's Park, the HQ of the FA.

Whilst Walter Tull, who played for Clapton FC, was the first English black footballer to win a football medal when his team won the FA Amateur Cup in1908-9. He then signed for Sours and Northampton Town (1909-11) for whom he played 111 times. As an outfield player he was regarded as the "catch of the season" at Clapton. He was killed in action in France in 1918.

Andrew Watson, a Guyanan, in 1881 represented the Scottish amateur team Parkgrove to start with, then Queen's Park and also played for Scotland three times. His other teams included the Swifts ( London side), the Corinthians and Bootle. Inheriting a substantial legacy from his father's plantation and slave business, Andrew was educated at boarding schools, studied briefly at Glasgow University and married early. He won cups with Queen's Park and captained Scotland until 1882 when he moved to London. Watson was rich enough to travel back and forth to Scotland where he played in the game to be staged at the "second" Hampden Park ( see previous blog). His last home was in Liverpool where he worked as a maritime engineer and turned out for the local Bootle FC.

IT'S ENOUGH TO GET ON YOUR WICK

The (English) FA Trophy is going ahead today despite the weather and I would have gone to a game, had there been a fixture near enough for comfort. The present weather is not encouraging me to venture out so I made biscuits instead and am listening to the wireless.

The Scottish FA Challenge Cup is also running this weekend, with the Third Round very much in action, although the weather has postponed three fixtures already. There were 16 fixtures due to be concluded this weekend. Dumbarton and Stirling are league clubs that have fallen to the rain and Wick Academy, members of the Highland League, eventually called off their tie against Linlithgow Rose after the opposition had arrived at the ground, following a road journey of 258 miles OR 5 hours. Wick is almost at John O' Groats and Linlithgow just north of Stirling.

The only Scottish Junior FA East regional Super League club left in the draw, Rose will be spitting feathers, having made the long trip for nothing. Founded in 1889 the club has gradually become established as a successful member of the Scottish Junior FA, meeting up with such beautifully named rivals as Penicuik, Musselburgh Athletic, Bonyrigg Rose and Hill of Beath Hawthorn. They all must mean something!

Wick Academy, founded in 1893, play in the "higher" Highland League and perform at a level similar to Huntly, Lothian Thistle HV, Inverurie Loco Works and Cumbernauld Colts. The club was founded on the basis of the local school and joined the Wick League in 1896 and became eligible for the Scottish Cup in 1911.

Wick's Sam MacKay will be miffed, having won the "Goal of the Round" twice in the last two rounds, was hoping to make "history". He can still do it, of course but momentum is momentum! His goals appear on this link, against Whitehill Welfare and Nairn.

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=1957&newsCategoryID=7&newsID=15717

RULERS OF THE WORLD-ONCE.

If England gave the World football, it took a long time for the FA to test out their teaching on the students of World foootball. It was not until 1908 that England toured eastern Europe, playing the Austrians (twice), Hungary and Bohemia. This was a June tour and England came away having taught the Europeans a few lessons with four wins and 28 goals for, 2 against.

Through the "19 teens" and into the 1920s, foreign football matches were few and far between, with Hungary, Austria and Belgium occasional opponents. France and Luxembourg soon appeared on the tour list, Spain was included in 1929 and Germany in 1930. Italy was played in 1933 along with Switzerland, Czechoslovakia the next year, Holland in 1935 and finally the Hungarians were allowed into Highbury on December 2nd 1936, the first time a foreign team visited. England won 6-2.

England went to Oslo to play Norway in 1937 and then took on the Rest Of Europe in 1938, again at Highbury. The next venue for a foreign side was Wembley (at last) and Norway had the privilege.

War got in the way, but before it started England played Yugoslavia and Romania on a tour in 1939.

Post war, the France came to Wembley in May 1945, there was a Victory International against Belgium in January 1946 and gradually our allies came to play more often to celebrate peace.

By the time the 1950s came round, England were still mainly successful in international matches including from the Home Internationals and then the 1950 World Cup failure hit home.

England were no longer the rulers of the World and by November 25th 1953, the Aranycsapat, the Hungarian "Golden team" came to town and thumped us 3-6.

The Magyars were Olympic champions (we never entered the tournament) and they had just drawn with Sweden 2-2, ten days before and apparently did not look dangerous.

Sweden were managed by George Raynor, who offered the FA tactical tips which the English officials refused to take on board. The Hungarians meanwhile trained at Lake Bulaton and used a machine that simulated fog, to prepare for the unusual weather conditions in London.

The English on watching the warm up prior to the match noticed that Hungarians "were not even wearing proper footwear" (they were wearing new lightweight boots) and the English regarded Ferenc Puskas as a "little fat chap". Little did they know that he would tear them apart, including one drag back and goal that sent captain Billy Wright (no 4) sliding "off the pitch" as he tried to tackle the Galloping Magyar. Geoffrey Green reported that Wright was "like a fire engine, heading to the wrong fire".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wdW5p3jd2Y

Note that the Hungarians did not stay in their "allotted" positions and their deep lying centre forward (no 9) Hidegkuti caused all sorts of problems.

The press reported "The new conception of football" and "Like Agincourt reversed".
In May 1954, England went to Budapest on tour, had learned nothing, didn't tweak their tactics and lost 1-7!

WHO INTRODUCED FOOTBALL TO BRAZIL? AN ENGLISHMAN.

The Praca Charles Miller Square in Sao Paulo commemorates the man who brought football to Brazil. Charles was born in 1874 into a wealthy Anglo-Brazilian family. His father left Glasgow to work in the coffee industry and Charles, at 10 years old, was sent to Bannisters boarding school in Southampton. In Brazil at the time there were thousands of immigrants from Britain "opening up" the country.

Nicknamed, "Nipper", Miller was a competent sportsman, enjoying football and cricket at school and his prowess led to him being asked to play for St Mary's, the original Southampton club and the Corinthians FC (now known as the non-league club, the famous Corinthian Casuals).

In 1894 Miller left England for Brazil and he took with him two footballs and an FA rule book, determined to encourage the ex-pats and locals to play football rather than cricket, which seemed to be more popular.

Miller soon enjoyed football's expansion in the local area, and by 1895 he formed a "football division" of the Sao Paulo Athletic Club, originally set up in 1888 by the British colonials mainly for cricket, tennis and the like. There was match arranged between the Railway and Gas companies which the Railways won 4-2.

In 1901, he helped found the la Liga Paulista de football with four other clubs and SPAC won the first three years' of titles. Word spread to neighbouring towns and Botafogo and Fluminese were soon formed. Touring sides from England soon enjoyed Brazilian hospitality and inevitably the Coritnhians visited in 1910 and founded the now the Corinthians FC, named by Miller.

Sao Paulo 1904: Miller is the one with the moustache! Only joking...he is the one in the middle at the front.

The Brazilian Football Confederation was founded in 1914.

Miller maintained his interest in football, refereeing a Championship decider as late in his life as 1949, at 75 years old. The spectacular showboating backheeled cross trick  is known as the "Chaleira", named after Charles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTcGekWZ05Q

IT'S ALWAYS THE FAULT OF THE ENGLISH ARBITER.

It has been a big week for anniversaries and on Monday 23rd November 1960, Real Madrid were "humiliated" by their old rivals Barcelona in the European Cup, second round. Real had won every European Cup from its beginning in 1955. They had never failed to win a European match at the Bernabeu. You may look at a previous blog about the 1943 El Clasico.

Both legs of this cup tie were refereed by Englishmen and it was Arthur Ellis,who apparently missed a linesman's flag in Barca's favour, with 3 minutes to go and Real 2-1 up. Barcelona played on, their Hungarian forward Kocsis was subsequently fouled in the penalty area and the resulting penalty kick was converted. An opponent left the Bernabeu stadium unbeaten for the first time in European Cup history.

In the second leg, another English ref, Reg Leafe disallowed four goals, three from Real and Leaf was decribed as Barca's best player. There were mutterings of a conspiracy by the ruling body to end Real's mastery in the cup.

Real got their own back two weeks later by beating Barca at the Camp Nou 5-3 and regained the La Liga title. They then won 5 titles on the trot and their sixth European Cup in 1966.

di Stefano with the first five European Cups.





Today is the 10th anniversary of George Best's death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp7cTlvHgUQ

FRASER JOLLY GOOD FELLOW

Who said the top flight game does nothing for the rest? Today Fraser Forster, the Southampton and occasional England goalkeeper, is persuaded to part with £100,000 as part of the FIFA ruling concerning Solidarity Payments. This means that any player transferred internationally, should pay 5% of the fee to the clubs that have nurtured him through his informative age, from 12-23 years old. 

Forster, born at Hexham, first played at Stocksfield FC in the North-east near Newcastle and was registered there between 1999-2003. There is reference to him being at the famous Wallsend Boys Club too.

He had brief loans at Stockport County and Bristol Rovers, followed by a season at Norwich City (Player of the Season) where he helped them gain promotion to the Championship. At Celtic he holds the Scottish top division record of 1,256 minutes without conceding a goal. 13 games.

His education was at the Independent School, The Royal Grammar School Newcastle, where he represented the Independent Schools Football Association XI.

The Stocksfield club became aware of this potential FIFA ruling and the likely windfall so enthusiastically investigated through local coaches and the local newspapers, to gain evidence of his existence. It took 6 months of research. 

Forster was at Newcastle Utd from U7-11, signing a contract in 2008. He then went to Celtic and that is where the international bit kicks in! In the SPL he won Save of the year in 2013.

An outstanding display against Messi and Barcelona in a Champions League tie raised his value, when he was named La Gran Muralla (The Great Wall) by the Spanish media.

He was given his international cap in 2013 against Chile and then signed for Southampton in August 2014.

Stocksfield FC have lost their senior section but do run Junior sides, so this money will help improve their volunteer coaches by investing in FA Coaches courses and hopefully buy a 4G pitch to counter the dreadful weather that the NEast suffers in the football season.

FROM MODEST BEGINNINGS

When Duncan Whatmore, of Sunderland, played for the England U20s in the Toulon tournament last summer, he told his team mates that bought his own boots. This surprised the rest of the squad, who were used to being looked after in the top flight.

Whatmore has a first class degree in economics and business management from Newcastle University, so you think he would know better and milk the system; no, he was dumped by Manchester United at 12, played Sunday football, got involved with Altrincham FC, was loaned to Clitheroe, and in 2013, eventually signed for Sunderland, where he was last season's PL Young Player of the Year. He is one of many of our homegrown players who either have had modest beginnings and should make it in top flight football, given the chance.

(It's a pen not a ciggy!)

Look at James Vardy (here I go again, see yesterday), Charlie Austin from Poole Town to Swindon and Chris Smalling- Maidstone to Fulham. What happened to Ricky Lambert, from a beetroot packing factory to where?

In Aidy Boothroyd's England U19s recent squad only 3 players came from outside the Premier League; Lewis Cook of Leeds and captain, Taylor Moore of Lens (France!!) and Rico Henry of Walsall. Everybody has to start somewhere, don't they? The point is that many of our young players get gobbled up by the PL academy system and are soon rejected when they near the top, as foreign players arrive, regarded to be better investments and barge onto the team sheet.

The English lads fall by the wayside, though some might recover and work their way back through the pyramid, but others get disillusioned, don't get much attention paid to them, lose contracts and go shopping on Saturdays.

The full English team playing France recently had only 6 players who had spent most of their development outside the PL clubs: Hart at Shrewsbury, Clyne at Palace, Stones at Barnsley, Alli-MKDons, Dier-Sporting Lisbon, Sterling at QPR but these are at least "proper clubs"and have respectable academies and therefore provide a decent stage for development.

There is a "Class of 92" or a "Golden Generation", bigged up by the press in every decade and these players were meant to be the catalyst for England's great drive to global success; we are still waiting for this to happen.
In the modern game our footballers have never taken the World by storm. Read the history of English international football back to the post War period, the 1950 World Cup finals and the emergence of the Hungarians, this was when it all started to go wrong.
(ok, that theory was murdered briefly in 1966, but what happened to English football prior to that year and since? Our only other tournament success was winning the Olympics in the early 20th Century?

Our Premier League is very exciting, but the PL clubs struggle to do the business in Europe and their national team players have not been able to impress at the top level. Why is this? Lack of FA DNA, poor pitches, the climate, too many foreigners?

Let us carry on with hope that our latest crop of home grown players, Roy's boys, can take England, where it has rarely been before.

Here's a list of past internationals who started from modest beginnings:
Stuart Pearce-Wealdstone to Forest, John Barnes-Sudbury Court, Middlesex, Ian Wright-Greenwich Borough, Les Ferdinand-Southall, David Sadler-Maidstone Utd, Kevin Phillips-Baldock Town, Steve Bull-Tipton Town. England didn't exactly thrive with this lot playing did we.

Anyone got any ideas?

ONE MORE GOAL; ONE MORE MATCH

James Vardy, when he scored on Saturday, equalled the record for the number of goals scored in consecutive  matches in the Premier League. His ten goal record this season matches that scored by Ruud van Nistelrooy for Manchester United, although Ruud's were scored over the space of two seasons in 2002-3 and 2003-4. When Ruud set his record, Vardy was playing for South Yorkshire non-leaguers, Stocksbridge Park Steels in the Northern Premier League Division 1. Both Ruud and James have moved on since then! Vardy could break the record soon, when he plays his next match against United next Saturday. He has contributed 17 goals and 5 assists in his last 23 appearances for Leicester City.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/a-splint-tag-and-lash-on-leg.html

Daniel Sturridge was next in line completing 8 goals in consecutive games in the Premier League in 2014.

You will find that Jimmy Dunne of Sheffield United put away 18 goals in 12 consecutive matches in Division One in 1931-2. Dunne, once a Gaelic footballer, took an interest in 5 a side football when he was imprisoned as a member of the IRA "D" Company. Released in 1923, he joined Shamrock Rovers and was picked up by English Fourth Division side, New Brighton. In February 1926, he was signed by the Blades for £800.

In 1929-30 he was the league's top scorer with 36 goals, the next season he scored 41 and was signed by Arsenal in 1933, who eventually replaced him with Ted Drake. Here is a picture of Jimmy warming up with his Arsenal team mates! What are they up to?

Dunne then went to Southampton and eventually back to Shamrock Rovers, where he was one of the last footballers to play in Germany before the the invasion of Poland, as war broke out. Playing for an Irish national side, as captain, he refused to salute Hitler at the start of the match but his others players did not follow his example; he was out on his own.

Dunne died at 44 years old and was buried in his Sheffield United shirt.

More recently! Stan Mortensen of Blackpool and England scored 12 in a row in the 1950-1 season when he and Stanley Matthews were on top form. This record has stood to date as well as his hat trick in the classic 1953 FA Cup Final won by the Tangerines, who beat Bolton Wanderers 5-3.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/rams-sandground-to-dust.html

EL CLASICO or EL CLASSIC

"El Clasico", as it is known to the supporters of Real Madrid or "El Classic", the Catalan expression, known better to the fans of Barca, describes the hot rivalry between the two best known clubs in Spain, maybe in the world. Today they meet again in a La Liga match at the Bernabeu.

229 meetings, including exhibition matches, have been played between these two clubs which represent Spanish nationality in Madrid and the "rebellious" Catalans from Barcelona. In La Liga ties, Real have won 71 and Barca 67 with 32 drawn. These two Spanish clubs along with Athletic Bilbao have never been out of the top division in Spain.

In 1936 Franco set the Coup d'Etat against the Spanish Republic and the president of Barcelona football club, Josep Sunyol, was captured and executed without trial by Franco's troops. The division between the two cities and therefore the clubs has always been vast. Barcelona being one of several organisations purged by the National Faction after communists, anarchists and independentists!!

Since the Generalissimo first oversaw Spain, Barca won the first 5 league titles until Real eventually broke their duck.

In June 1943, in a Copa del Rey semi-final, once the General's Cup now the King;s Cup), Real beat Barcelona 11-1 at the Bernabeu, after losing 0-3 in the first leg at Barca's Les Corts stadium at the time. The heavy defeat was put down to the extraordinary presence of the police and the secretary of State Security who apparently told the visitors that he had allowed the them "into the country". Intimidated by this, the Barca players could not perform to any standard. Another explanation is that the Barca players could not cope with Real's tough tackling and the violent nature of the home crowd.

This animosity has been continued with the Ultras emerging in the 1980s, the Sur of Madrid, the "conservatives" and the Boixos Nois of Barca, the "rebellious" club. Some might say that the fixture is encapsulated by the performance of the two stars, Ronaldo and Messi.

Messi is the greatest classico goal scorer with 21 goals, Alfredo di Stefano of Real, scored 18. Xavi of Barca, Sanchis and Gento of Madrid have all appeared in 42 Classics.

Other classics this weekend include Tottenham and West Ham and Plymouth and Exeter!

JIMMY HILL; VERY MUCH A CHINNED WONDER

Jimmy Hill's third wife, Bryony, has written a  book about her husband and her experiences shared with him over their 24 year marriage. Jimmy now has dementia and many of us will have our own opinions about the man, who might be regarded as one of the most influential men in football.

Born in July 1927, he played football from 1949 to 1961 for Brentford (83 times) and Fulham (276) and managed Coventry between 1961-67. He never made it to international stage but he had many strings to his bow, which I think makes him a bit of a hero.

He escorted Racquel Welch around London over a weekend in 1972, he was part of the Fuham team that made it into the top flight and he scored five goals in an away league fixture at Doncaster in 1958.

As manager of Coventry City for six years, he led them through two promotions to the First Division and then used his sharp brain to become Chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association in 1957. He led the campaign to abolish to maximum wage of £20 a week (Johnny Haynes, at Fulham, became the first player to earn £100 a week), at Coventry, he developed the first all seater stadium and established the concept of three points for a win (which George Raynor had suggested many years earlier!!see previous blog) and wrote club songs for Coventry (The Sky Blue Song) and Arsenal (Good Old Arsenal).

In January 1961, he called off a proposed strike by Football League players as the League and PFA met to scrap the "binding contract" that ties players to their clubs for "life", the so called "slavery contract". George Eastham benefitted from this ruling folowing complications over his move from Newcastle Utd to Arsenal.

He was the first player to front a football television programme, was Head of Sport at London Weekend TV (1968-72) and as a television executive he introduced punditry to the screen (during the World Cup in 1970) and fronted Match of the Day over 600 times. He lifted the ban on matchday interviews, introduced the first electronic scoreboard in 1964, the first colour match day programme and in 1965 showed the first live match via CCTV at Coventry's stadium. In 1999, he moved to Sky with the Sunday Supplement.

He is the only footballer to have been manager, director, managing director and chairman of a club.

After Coventry, he had a spell as Chairman at Charlton, spent some time at Fulham and crucially blocked a potential merger with QPR at that time.

On September 16 1972, he attended the match at Highbury between Arsenal and Liverpool, When a linesman pulled a muscle and could not continue. This was before the fourth official, so when the matchday announcer called for help over the tannoy, Hill, a qualified referee, stepped up to fill the gap!

In April 1975 as managing director of Coventry, he oversaw a crucial relegation match, at home, against Bristol Rovers . The crowd caused a delay in the kick off time by ten minutes, whereas the other important match between Sunderland and Everton kicked off on time. As the "electronic scoreboard" showed that Sunderland were losing 0-2, so the Coventry players wasted time for 10 minutes and eventually saved their day. Sunderland were relegated with Spurs and Stoke. Hill was reprimanded by the FA!

He is vice-president of the non-League Corinthian Casuals, Trustee of the Stable Lads Association and Patron of the local Labrador Dog Rescue.

Soon after his last appearance on Sky's Sunday supplement, he was diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimer's.

There is a statue erected at the Ricoh marking his contribution to the Sky Blues' success (2011 and unveiled by him) and also reminds us of his massive contribution to football. Jimmy has been in permanent care since 2012.

YOU WON'T GET LOST ON A STRAIGHT ROAD

Sheffield and Hallamshire FAs were merged by Charles Clegg and during his reign as Chairman and President of his local county, he also became Chairman and President of the English FA.

He was a pioneer in the early days of football. Born in Sheffield in 1850, he played for local sides and then Sheffield FC and Wednesday. 

He and his brother represented Sheffield FA XIs in the first inter-association match on Decemeber 2nd 1871, and he played for England in the first official international against Scotland on November 30 1872, though he described some of his team mates as "snobs from the south". 

His brother William won a cap the following year, thus they became the first brothers to earn English international caps. 

Later, he and his brother were chosen to captain two teams, Reds and Blues, to play in the first floodlit match at Bramall Lane on October 15 1878, in front of a crowd of 20,000.

He became a referee, officiated in two FA cup finals, 1882 and 1892 as well as international matches.

He then was involved in administration and sat on the FA Council, with some of those "snobs", no doubt.

As president of Sheffield United Cricket Club he suggested that the Football club should play at Bramall Lane, which caused the foundation of the Blades in 1889 and the home of football for United.

He oversaw England's joining of FIFA in 1905 and their exit in 1919 and another join and leave in the 1920s. over the thorny issue of paying players.

He then was knighted by King George V, becoming the first football related "Sir". He was mayor of Sheffield three times, a strict tee-totaller, deeply religious and quoted that "nobody ever got lost on a straight road". Clearly he felt that professionalism might ruin football! 

But he also understood players. In a disciplinary meeting a player came before him for making the remark that "he had shit better referees that this one". Clegg fairly replied that he would give the player a week to prove it and "if you can't you will be fined a £1"....quite a lot in those days!.

Clegg died in June 1937 and his funeral was held at Sheffield Cathedral.

YOUNG ENGLAND

There was a representative team called Young England where Under 23s were blooded on the international stage. These days there is an U21 team, etc etc.

There has always been of course the full international side and last night Roy Hodgson selected the youngest XI to represent England since 1959, when manager Walter Winterbottom sent out a youthful group to play Wales at Ninian Park, Cardiff on October 17th. 

The team included Eddie Hopkinson in goal, Don Howe, Ronnie Clayton as captain, Ron Flowers, John Connelly, Jimmy Greaves (the goal scorer was the youngest in that side), Brian Clough, Bobby Charlton, and the lesser known, Edwin Holliday from Middlesbrough, Tony Allen of Stoke, Trevor Smith (Birmingham City).

 I would look up the ages of every player in both squads but enough is enough.

England drew 1-1 with Wales, beat Scotland 1-0 and beat N. Ireland 2-1 at Wembley, played Italy at home also (2-2), and lost to Sweden 2-3 (h) and had a shocking South American tour losing to Brazil, Peru and Mexico but they did thump the USA 8-1. Ron Flowers scored two goals in that game in Los Angeles, both 30 yarders.

Since we are on to ages, Peter Schmeichel is 52 today, so happy birthday to him and the well known Bobby Campbell's obituary appears in the papers today; he died on November 6 aged 78. God bless him.

NICE COP, SCARY COP

TalkSport were asking listeners to phone in with their top three managers ever and there were some brilliant combinations. Shankly, Pulis, Gradi? Stein, Allison, Ferguson...choose your own, but make them knit together.

I was watching the Republic of Ireland beat Bosnia last night and got regular glimpses of Martin O'Neill and Roy Keane on the Irish bench and enjoyed their success, qualifying for the 2016 European Championships in France. Aston Villa must be rueing the day they got rid of O'Neill and for Roy Keane? Who knows?

I admire O'Neill for his resilience and continue academic approach to football. Have a look at this snippet that brings the influence of Brian Clough on O'Neill's development.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHPjZZ4wqBk

Roy Keane, the "bad cop" in the pairing of the Irish management team, does have a dodgey past but he has got rid of the scary beard and the Irish are a hungry and well drilled team.

Keane and Clough had a chemistry that didn't always work but Keane might agree that he learned lessons from "ol' big head".

This clip makes reference to the affect that Clough had on the controversial Irishman, one way and another. He does want to continue working with O'Neill into the Europeans next year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8BMvrOkEzM

GOLDBERG HOPES FOR GOLD BLEND

Mark Goldberg cut his footballing "teeth" at Alleyn's School in Dulwich, an independent school, probably regarded as "Public" in his time. He still claims the school goal scoring record of 10 goals in a match and then he went off on a football scholarship to the US where he played alongside Jon Stewart, recently the host of the Daily Show.

On his return from the States, he joined his local club, Bromley FC, where he had been a debutee at 16 and he began his next phase as player-manager for the reserves.

Once owning a recruitment firm, which he sold, he bought Crystal Palace FC in 1998. Palace got relegated and sensible income was lost, he became bankrupt, sold the club, reorganised and in 2006, got involved with local Bromley FC and coached their under 9s, for whom his son, Bradley played Goldberg eventually managed the adult side.

He now stands in the dug out as manager, sometimes in his suit, having just rushed from his office, where he is back in recruitment and stabilised. He is writing a book which may get published one day, when Bromley make it into the Football League. The south London club is "full-time", in the top ten of the Vanarama National League, promoted from the Conference South last season, now in its highest position in the club's 123 year history, despite having just been beaten byAltrincham 1-3, on a roll after their cup win over Barnsley.

There are 36 teams, a fitness and conditioning coach. superb training facilities and a planning application for a new stand, an indoor facility and a car park. It needed it!

Founded in 1892, the Ravens (sometimes the Lilywhites??)  won the FA Amateur Cup three times. They beat Bishop Auckland in the 1911 final (April 8th at Herne Hill) and then Erith and Belvedere on April 23rd 1938 played at the Den, Millwall. In 1949, also on the 23rd April, they beat Romford in front of a 93,000 crowd at Wembley. Each victory was by the same score, 1-0 and each time the Bromley goal was scored by a player wearing the number 8 shirt. Spooky.

The record attendance at Hayes Lane, their ground, was in 1949 when over 10,500 turned up for a friendly against a Nigerian XI!

BUCKING THE TREND

I could blather on about the FA Trophy and indeed if I had gone to Buxton FC which was my original plan, thwarted by the weather, I would have seen a 5-1 for the home team and would have been over excited by the rarified atmosphere being at the highest (in altitude) ground in England; Silverlands stands 304 metres about sea level. Founded in 1877 the club tops Tow Law Town (299.9m) and AFC Emley , Wakefield (184m). As you will have read in a previous blog, the Hawthorns is the highest professional stadium in the English football league. http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/from-highest-to-lowest-its-all-up-or.html

The link below will take you to some of the higst and lowest and most beautiful stadia in the country.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2411492/Top-10-beautiful-football-grounds.html

You will see the Eidi Stadium on the Faroes, where you will be battered on both sides by sea winds off the Atlantic and Arbroath's Gayfield Park is reputedly the stadium closest to the sea in Europe. The Prospects Stadium on Canvey Islands is the lowest, although Grimsby Town is the lowest in ther FLeague.

The players at the Ottmar Hitzfeld Stadium on Zermatt, Switzerland is carved into the mountain side and playes get to the ground by cable car at over 2000 metres, claimed to be the highest in Europe,

The Estadio Daniel Alcides Carrion at Cerro de Pasco in Peru stands at 4380 metres, the highest in the world. The high altitude stadium controversy arose in 2007 when nations complained about the unfair advantage gained by teams playing above 2500 metres was rescinded a year later and FIFA announced guidelines for teams to arrive a certain number of days before a match at 3000m to acclimatise. No doubt Sep Blatter will have had the final word. Only the national stadium at La Paz Peru (3500m) comes "outside" that ruling.

Bramall Lane opened in 1855, is the oldest surviving stadium still hosting professional games and the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow is the first stadium to install artificial turf approved by FIFA, to counteract the Russian winters. I wonder who paid?

GLADIATORS TURN OVER DUCKS

I have mentioned Shaw Lane Aquaforce before; here is one  but there are others
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/thedraw-for-fourth-round-of-fa-vase.html.
I only skirt the various past rounds of the FA Trophy and Vase where the "Ducks" have made some progress. Today was a terrible day; windy, rain, misty, very wet underfoot, cold, but perfect for cup ties and both SLA and Matlock Town, their slightly more established opponent, provided an entertaining cup tie; the Second Qualifying Round of the Trophy.

At Shaw Lane, which is also the home of the local rugby club (they share the pitch) and Barnsley CC (they don't share the pitch), the undaunted crowd was kept on tenterhooks through the first half, which was quite dull to be honest.

After half time, the Gladiators from Derbyshire, made their mark with a well worked goal. The Ducks replied with a 20 yard rasping shot after a rebound and then Matlock did it again, passing the ball well, on a day which made accurate play difficult. There were other chances and scrambles in both goal areas, as the ball squirted about, but that is how the score remained.

After all the swearing and frequent use of the f***ing word in virtually every utterance and an occasional c***, one chap said "Oi ref, he's impeding him!" I wonder how many in the crowd appreciated it? The ref brushed it aside! and said "play on".

The Ducks had a clever plot to have no spare balls near the pitch so when the original was belted over a fence, there was a considerable wait. The "ball boys" had disappeared by half time and I'm not surprised, the little chaps would have been frozen, wet and muddy.

So Matlock Town, founded in 1878, play one Step higher than Shaw Lane Aqua and march on, hoping to get to Wembley again, following their FA Trophy Final win in 1974-5. The club is the only one to have three brothers, the Fenoughtys, in the same side at Wembley.
Peter Swan, remember him from Sheffield Wednesday, England and a betting scandal? managed the side that season and led them to the FA Cup First Round losing to Blackburn Rovers, who were to win the Third Division title.

I had a nice chat with Scott Maxfield's dad, who follows his son all over, throughout his career and noted tha Joe Thornton, who has been with the Ducks since they were a Sunday League side, was in the home team squad. A long serving clubman.

DINGWALL RINGS A BELL

Quite excited because it is FA Trophy day tomorrow and I had planned to visit Buxton for their tie but the weather is going to be foul and Shaw Lane Aquaforce might be a more appropriate ground to visit.

I met a group of mature ladies this afternoon who come from the Borders (Scotland) and one who heralds from Dingwall. I know about Dingwall FC, I said, so do said she and she continued to teach me all I wanted to know about the small Scottish town and its football. Good girl!

So Dingwall lies on the western end of the Cromarty Firth, north of Inverness. The town football team is actually known a Ross County FC and they have risen from the Highland Football League to the Scottish Premiership since 1992. They cruised through the Scottish Third, Second and First divisions rapidly and now play amongst the big boys.

Founded in 1929, the Staggies (see badge) take their name from the crest "Caberfeidh" or Stag's Head. The badge is taken from the Seaforth Highlanders, a regiment that lost so many soldiers in the Great War. Their main rivals will be nearby Inverness Caledonian Thistle and County play at the Global Energy Stadium in Dingwall with a capacity of just over 6,500.

Dingwall Thistle FC is an amateur team that plays in the originally named Ross-Shire Junior League (formed in 1919) at Jubilee Park and I believe they are truly a local side and now enjoy Welfare football which takes place in the summer months and includes teams from Cromarty, Tain, Fortrose and a few other Highland sides.

They now play in the 1970's named North Caledonian League. Tain hold the 2015 champions trophy, winning 13 of their 14 games. Eastern Rose sadly snuggle at the bottom of the heap with 14 losses out of 14 and 14 goals for and 118 against. Dingwall were second to last.

THE FIRST FIRST ROUND OF THE FA CUP

I am a day late with this but having read The Barber's (David Barber is the recently retired FA Historian-see previous blogs) tweet yesterday, I am reminded that the FIRST ever First Round of the FA Cup was played on the 11th November 1871.

Charles W.Alcock remembered his schoolboy days at Harrow School, where there was an inter-house competition. So he set up the tournament based on his experience. The clubs paid a subscription to join in, buying a silver cup worth £20.

Only four ties were played in this first round and the first ever goal was scored by Jarvis Kenrick of Clapham Rovers. 15 teams joined in the competition and this led eventually to a final betwen Wanderers (a mixture of public schoolboys originally, 1859, based at Forest School, Snaresbrook, Essex) and the Royal Engineers on the 16th March 1872,  at the Kennington Oval.

Queen's Park of Scotland paid a Guinea for the privilege of playing in the cup and Harrow Chequers, Reigate Priory and Donington School scratched before the first round got under way. The school from Lincolnshire was not able to travel to Glasgow to play Queen's Park. The other two clubs just failed to get sorted out!

The Queen's Park team was exempt from the early rounds due to the distance they would have to travel (yes they were expected to play in London!) and were therefore "byed" through to the semi-final. Here they met Wanderers  and played at the Oval managing a draw. They could not afford to return for a replay  so scratched and let their opponents into the Final!

The Wanderers founded in 1859, won the cup 5 times out of the first 7. The club was revived in 2009 and played an exhibition "Cup Final" in 2013 at the Oval (on the outfield) against the Royal Engineers (who still exist) as part of the 150 year celebration of the foundation of the Football Association.
(left is a photo of the Forest team, the only team group remotely attached to the Wanderers)

BELLA CENTRE FORWARD

Bella Raey was a coal miner's daughter born in Cowpen, Northumbria. She worked in the munition factories in the north east of England, during the First WorldWar, as many women did. Between 1917-9 she played football for various teams promoting "Ladies" football and keeping the game alive, when so many men were fighting and competitions were suspended.

Left is Blyth Spartans FC Ladies.
An early ladies' fixture, in February 1917, was between Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company and North East Marine. Local naval ratings and dock workers on Tyneside, encouraged women to learn how to play the game, "controlling the elusive pigskin". Some matches against men were organised with the males having to play with their hands tied behind their backs. No grabbing at corners then!

These matches were often played on league pitches, such as St James' Park and Ayresome, attracting huge crowds, once reaching over 50,000, as curious football fans crammed into stadia with the takings going to the war effort, such as the Blyth Military Merit and Homecoming Fund.

From August 1917, Bella played centre forward for Blyth Spartans in the Munitions Cup Final and the lady players were known as "Munitionettes". Each munitions factory formed a team and entered the tournament, with the main intent of raising money for their named charity. The teams were made up from female dockers and factory workers and they attracted huge crowds, some of whom witnessed Bella scoring 4 goals in the final. In that season she scored 133 goals in 30 games, inlcuding 6 in one match.

At the end of the 1918 season she appeared twice for an England XI, although she should have ben selected more often, but preferred to play for her home side.

Bella then featured for Jarrow Palmers, a team that won the cup the following year and she was the only player to get two winners medals. The report below covers the history of ladies football in the NE in excellent detail.

https://blythspirit.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/ladies-doing-it-for-themselves/

In 1921, once hostilities had finished, womens' football was abandoned, banned by the "forward thinking FA", who refused to let females play with or against men and certainly not on "official pitches".

Bella eventually married and took the name of Henstock, living on a farm.

HIS LAST POST BUT NO STATUE

Just mention the Independent Schools' Cup and there will be some coach somewhere in the world who knows what I am talking about and will get in touch.

Simon Gough, coached successfully St Bede's School in East Sussex. An unfashionable school twenty or so years ago, but now one that takes football very seriously and has held it reputation in both ISFA and English Schools' FA competitions. Goughie is now in the middle-east making proper money, apparently.

He sees the blog occasionally and also links up through Facebook, so as I was meandering my way out to Manchester today to watch an ISFA Cup tie (see previous blog), Goughie comes up with "Did I ever tell you about my dad and George Raynor?"

This got me going. First of all George was born about 5 miles away from my Yorkshire home in Hoyland Common (some references say Wombwell) in 1907, the son of a miner. Before his death he had been knighted in Sweden, coached in Italy and ended up managing Skegness Town at the Burgh Stadium! Don't stop reading.

The Skegness link comes with the English Schools' Football Festival, which was held in a variety of Butlins and Pontins around the country, notably in Bognor Regis, when I was playing for Sussex Schools U18s, before Goughie was born I bet, and later in Skegness at the Derbyshire Miners' Welfare Holiday Centre, where the ISFA squad performed. Imagine 40 or so county sides of 18 year old footballers crammed together in chalets, playing matches against other counties on local pitches.

George Raynor spent his final years of football management in Lincolnshire, coaching Town for £10 a week, a club in the Midland League, entertaining local school kids with football and working at Butlins as a storeman to supplement his salary. He died in Buxton in 1985 aged 78, mainly unsung by English football, but loved by the Swedes, but not recognised by the English press.

He played for Elsecar Bible Class, Mexborough Athletic and Wombwell. There was one match for Sheffield United in 1930, then Bury, Mansfield and Rotherham United. He found himself working as a PE instructor in Baghdad, he assembled the Iraqi national team, was at Aldershot towards the end of the war and also held a post in Rome coaching for Lazio, along with various Swedish clubs in the 1950s.

Unable to get a decent coaches' job in England, Stanley Rous at the FA recommended him to the Swedish FA, where Raynor had huge success, taking the national team to an Olympic Gold medal in London in 1948, a third place in the 1950 World Cup (we all know what happened to England that year), an Olympic Bronze medal in 1952, beaten by the great Hungarians and a World Cup Final defeat by Brazil and Pele in Sweden in 1958.

Despite some flirting with English football, Coventry City (1955-6) for example, his continental ways did not suit the English FA, and after a scatheing attack on the FA in his autobiography, there was no chance of him being taken on in his home country. Revolutionary ideas such as three points for a win and a reduced "First Division" were two of his suggestions. Not many listened, bit like Cloughy?

He does have recognition in the Swedish Football Museum in Degerfors and his portrait hangs in the Swedish FA HQ.

He helped Sweden beat England 3-2  at Wembley in October 1959 and in 1962 he was asked back to help Sweden with their World Cup campaign and in 1966, at 60 years old, he took unfashionable Doncaster Rovers to the top of the Fourth Division 1967-8, his last post.

Despite a campaign, there is no statue in Barnsley to remember Raynor's contribution to World football.

LAST OF THE FIRST

Things could be worse. It's blowing a gale out there and lashing down. Hoping to watch an Independent Schools FA cup tie tomorrow in Manchester and The Grammar School. They are due to play Ardingly College from Sussex, a school I played against when I was at Collyers GS, in Horsham, in the 1960s and the legendry George Robb from the great Spurs side of the 1950s was their coach. That didn't mean much to us teenagers in those days but it should have done.

Carol Kirkwood is out of "Strictly", so that must have something to do with the weather and Downton is over bar the Christmas Special. Will Edith get her man? Will Barrow be liked by anyone?

What can be worse than being the last FA Cup tie on schedule (not including the replays of course), when FC United of Manchester play Chesterfield, the twisted spire men, at 7.45 at the new Broadhurst Park? I wonder if their drainage is as good as the Manchester Grammar School's, who promise that their cup game will be on. The clubs are a bit miffed because the game has been moved to Monday evening for TV needs. It's not like a traditional Saturday is it? And the weather is foul.

There are a number of coincidences associated with this game; Charlie Raglan and Ollie Banks in the Chesterfield squad learned their trade at FC United, both teams have experienced being owned by a supporters' trust and both clubs have "new stadia" Broadhurst Park (left) and the Proac, in Derbyshire.

Chesterfield are guided by manager Dean Saunders, a goalscorer of much note and FCUtd have Karl Marginson as boss. FCUtd beat Rochdale 3-2 on Bonfire Night, on their way through the early rounds in 2011-12, eventually losing to Brighton after a replay.
Whereas Chesterfield made it to the Fourth Round last season, their best showing since their amazing run in 1996-7, when they got to the semi-finals. Imagine the twisted spiremen playing at Wembley, the spire would go all trembly!

In 1996-7 Chesterfield had one of those "lucky" runs to the final rounds playing:
at home to Bury (1-0) in the first round,
at home to Scarborough (2-0) in round 2,
home to Bristol City (2-0) in Rd3,
away at Bolton (3-2) in Rd4,
then Nottingham Forest (1-0) at home 5th Rd,
Wrexham in the quarter-finals (what??) home 1-0 with only an 8735 crowd and
then losing to Middlesbrough (Ravanelli and all) after a 3-3 at Old Trafford, and
the replay at Hillsborough (2-3) with David Elleray reffing both ties.

Oh yes, David Elleray is the Chairman of the Independent Schools FA. FULL CIRCLE.

WATERLOGGED PITCHES AND GIANT KILLING

The weather has turned bad, the local bonfire (scheduled for Sunday night, why on Sunday? Commercial interests?) has been cancelled, my little U12s had to wade through a waterlogged pitch this morning, losing 1-8 to a team two divisions higher in the League Cup and Spurs have just nicked a point off the Arsenal. It is lashing down outside.

But it is the underdogs who attract me this weekend and where better to start than the FA Cup and Sussex based Whitehawk, a suburb of East Brighton, originally known as "Vied Ac" in pre-history as Holy Oak, Whitehawk is set in an area known for being a military rifle range, a racecourse (Brighton's Course is still there) and a rubbish dump nestled on the edge of the South Downs, a site of settlement since Neolithic times (c 2700BC) dealing with Brighton's overspill.

Whitehawk FC, founded in 1945, has made remarkable progress from being a "County League" side when I was playing in the 1970-80s, to becoming one of the foremost Non-League Clubs in the National League South. A little investment, a few good signings and an improved stadium makes a lot of difference. And today they beat Lincoln City, 5-3 in a Cup thriller at the Enclosed Ground, so that the Hawks will appear in the draw for the 2nd Round proper.

Brackley Town from Northamptonshire, is another one of those places that I am sure I have heard of, but I'm not entirely sure where it is. Famed for wool and lace and Silverstone, whatever, the club drew with Newport County 2-2 today and they too will be in the hat.

Founded in 1890 they play at St James' Park and have risen from the Oxfordshire Senior League, through the North Bucks and District, to the Hellenic League, United Counties and Southern League, arriving in the National league North. In 2013-14 they reached the 2nd Round Proper of the FA Cup and will be hoping to to do the same this week. The prize money is important.

Aldershot Town(are they minnows?), Maidenhead Utd (Alan
Devonshire), and Chesham United (remember 1980?) have made their names this weekend too.

Looking forward to the draw.

WELLING UP AS BARWELL SINKS

Told you so. Salford City would thump Notts County....well OK, I got it wrong and Salford did win, very much against my prediction. Funny old game therefore; not too many non-Football League teams will be in the 2nd Round draw.

Well done Forest Green Rovers who beat AFC Wimbledon on Kingfield and Altrincham who put out Barnsley's dying embers 1-0. What chance of a managerial change on Monday in South Yorkshire?

Crewe lost to Eastleigh 0-1 and that's about it for giant killing.

Left in the draw are Welling United, who took care of the smallest club in the round, the "large village" of Barwell, a Northern Premier League side, that sports bright yellow and green kit and therefore the club is nicknamed the Canaries-original?

The club was formed in 1992 through the merger of Midland League side Barwell Athletic FC and the demise of Hinckley United FC. Their record crowd is 1940 who turned up in their most recent promotion year to watch FC United in April 2013.

This  year's cup run dispatched Westfields FC (from Hereford) 4-1, winning £3,000, then Cogenhoe United (Northampton based) 5-0, worth £4,500, Kings Lynn 1-0 (£7,500) and AFC Rushden and Diamonds, after 2-2 at home and 1-0 away. (£12,500). Today the club would have earned £18,000. BUT WELLING DID!!
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Barwell-FC-geared-continue-FA-Cup-run/story-28120017-detail/story.html

Barwell is in Leicestershire and has a population of under 9,000, but has developed as a Community Charter Standard Club which means they provide football for the local area and host a number of different teams of boys and girls from 3-16 years old. Then there are the open age teams. Barwell gets its name from "a boar that drinks at the well or stream" and is home to local shoe and hosiery manufacturing, as well as being a site where a series of meteorites landed around Christmas in 1965 and caused damage but insurance claims were hard to make due to "an act of God".

More cup ties tomorrow and Monday.

Dont sign off watch the FIFA nominated top ten goals of 2015
http://www.itv.com/news/2015-11-06/fifas-top-10-goals-of-the-year-revealed/

OLDEST v "YOUNGEST" -UP FOR THE CUP

This evening's match between Salford City v Notts County, on a wet and windy day in Manchester, will be one of the most advertised FA Cup ties in history. It is the first round of the English Football Association Challenge Cup. There are some luscious ties elsewhere but following on from the TV exposure that Salford City has had in its documentary, then tonight's game will be one to watch. Oldest league club v One day hopefully the Youngest league club. Tasty.

What am I doing? Getting soaked at the Under 12 practice at 7pm and then drying off in the car with some serious air conditioning and changing my trousers, as I travel to Town, so I can watch the Bond film in Huddersfield, hooray, what a Spectreacle.

Notts County is the oldest existing league club founded in November 28th 1862 and since 1888 the club has played over 4750 league games, more than any other club.

Their colours were adopted by Juventus in their infancy when one of their players, John Savage, an Englishman, in 1903 was sent home to bring back kit that would suit the variable weather in Turin. He did and brought back local club, Notts County stripes, white and black.

County won the Cup in 1894 and were finalists in 1891. Albert Iremonger is their most prolific player with 601 appearances, whilst Tommy Lawton (1947-52) and Tony Hateley (1958-63 and 1970-2) were famous centre forwards. Unbelievably, County were in the First Division in 1991-2. Hard to imagine!

Will the "The Class of 92" persuade their "semi-pros" to upset the bookies.I don't think so.... watch this space.

THERE IS MORE TO POINTLESS THAN YOU THINK.

The evenings are drawing in and Pointless on BBC 1 is one of few options to wile away a few minutes once the light fades and gardening is impossible. An early Pointless exercise was to name African countries in the alphabet after Kenya! Woohoo!! So a bad answer was Nigeria and a good one was Sao Tome and Principe. (there are some Portuguese accents thrown into the name but my keyboard doesn't do them).

This is a pair of archipelagos set around the two main islands (87 miles apart) about 150 miles west of the Gabon coastline. The population is just over 160,000 and there is a significant Portuguese influence.

So there is football! 16 teams compete in the "national leagues" founded in 1977, with the Sao Tome (10 clubs) champions taking on the Principe (6 clubs) champions in a Cup play off. In Sao Tome there are enough players to form three levels of football.

A member of CAF, the Federacao Santomense de Futebol controls the local foootball and national team. The first international was played in 1979 against Chad and there was a 5-0 defeat. Ranked 157 in FIFA, the country plays in the Central African Games with limited success and with sizeable breaks between entering the competition. They managed a draw with Angola in 1987 and a first victory over Equatorial Guinea 2-0 in 1999 and a second win over Sierra Leone also 2-0 with a draw put them 179th in ranking.There have been several withdrawals from important competitions and therefore a decline in status but an atempt to qualify for the 2014 World Cup did re-establish the nations reputation somewhat.

Most recently in June, they have played in qualifying games for the African Nations Cup, against the Cape Verde Islands (lost 1-7 Leal scored their goal), then Morocco (lost 0-3) in September and beat Ethiopia 1-0 on 8th October 2015. Leal scored the winner in the 87 minute. Finally Ethiopia won 3-0 in the return match.

THIRTEEN TO GO

Well done Wayne! Scoring last night against CSKA Moscow gave Wayne Rooney his 237th goal for Manchester United and he chases another Bobby Charlton record.
Charlton scored 249 times for his only club in 748 games. A lot of games! compared to Wayne's 496. This goal brings Wayne level with Dennis Law who completed his total in 404 games, with some well known United players now left in his wake.

Jack Rowley comes 4th with 211 goals in 424 games, Rowley was known as the Gunner (and so was his brother Arthur also a competent goalscorer-434 goals in 619 games).
Jack first played for Wolves in 1935, his local club, then with Bournemouth and Boscombe in 1937, soon making his debut for United v Sheffield Wednesday and then notching 4 against Swansea in his second game. He was picked 6 times for England and scored 6 times. In his career Rowley played 504 times with 238 goals.

After his spell at United with Matt Busby, when he played in the 1948 Cup Final, scoring 2 in a 4-2 win over Blackpool, then quite a respectable First Division club, in 1955 he took on the managership of Plymouth Argyle, went to Oldham Athletic twice, Ajax in 1963-4, Wrexham, Bradford Park Avenue retiring in 1969, passing away in 1998.

George Best is ranked 5th= with 179 in 470 matches along side Dennis Viollet who equalled this total in only 293 games,

Viollet played at United, winning the League championship  in 1956 and 57 and then went to Stoke City (207 games/66 goals) having survived the Munich Air Crash. He only represented England  two times with one goal in the 1960-1 season. He later played and coached in the USA and played finally for Witton Albion and Linfield. He died in 1999.
Daughter Rachel was a British number 1 tennis player.

HE'S BIG, HE'S BAD, HE'S OLDER THAN MY DAD!

Peter Shilton holds the record for appearances in English Association Football at the higher level, with 1005 matches. But he is a goalkeeper and of course less strained than outfield players, and therefore goalies have greater longevity, Burridge and co!
The chant above was heard at Spotland, Rochdale and sung about their ageing hero.
Tony Ford MBE (awarded in 2000) on 3rd November turned out for Rochdale at Spotland in a
Football League trophy tie against Torquay United and became the most selected outfield player in football history.

Making his debut in October 1975 at 16, Ford notched 931 league appearances in his long career with 107 goals over 26 seasons. Along with cup matches he has passed 1000 games. He also played twice for England B.

At 51, he retired from coaching and scouting for Grimsby. Between his debut and then 423 appearances for home town, Grimsby, in two spells, he then went on to Sunderland, Stoke City (112), West Brom (114), Bradford City, Scunthorpe, Barrow, Mansfield (103) and then Rochdale up to 2001.

Graeme Alexander matched his record with over 1000 appearances at Scunthorpe (159) Luton (152), Preston (354), Burnley (154) between 1990-2012 and 40 times for Scotland between 2002-9.
As a manager, he worked most recently at Fleetwood and briefly at Preston between 2011-15.

Name a few others in the top ten with record breaking football appearances.

SONS OF THE ROCK-AN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Does anyone know where Dumbarton is in Scotland? You should, it has a football team. In 1995, the new season saw Dumbarton in the First Division of the Scottish League. Murdo MacLeod, the manager, who saw his team win promotion on the final day of the previous season, was poached by Premier League club Partick Thistle, so a new regime had to begin. Dumbarton, managerless at the start of the new season, won their first two games and "the traitor", MacLeod eventually saw his new club relegated in his first season.

Jim Fallon, who had played over 600 games for Clydebank, was brought in to take over at Dumbarton and that is where the trouble began. In his first match in charge, they played Dunfermline Athletic (later division champions) and lost 0-4. Having beaten Dundee United 1-0 next, seven games later they were thumped 0-8 in the return game and things only got worse. The final season's 19 games were lost and the club won more points before Fallon arrived, managerless (6), compared to Fallon's reign (5).

Nevertheless, he was given a new contract and in the first 12 matches of the next season, there was one win and 8 losses. he went and Dumbarton then won three of their next four games. The club dropped two divisions consecutively.
Fallon's total record was: P46 W2 D5 L39.

You might wonder what the elephant (in the room) on the badge is all about? Dumbarton Castle is sited on a volcanic plug (as Edinburgh is) which resembles an elephant (apparently). The club nickname is known as the Sons, as any child born in the town is called. The club founded in 1872 is the 4th oldest Scottish club, after Queen's Park (1867), Kilmarnock (69) and Stranraer (70) and resided at Boghead Park from 1879-2000. They now play at the Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium, overshadowed by the Rock and accommodating just over 2,000 crowd. They presently play in the Championship.

HAT TRICKS GALORE

Arouna Kone of Everton put three past Sunderland today to thrash the Black Cats 6-2. It must be hat trick season?

Jimmy Scarth will not be known to many of you, but he played for Gillingham and on the 1st November 1952, he scored a hat trick in the Division 3 South league game against Leyton Orient at Priestfield in 2' 30".
The Gills were lying 17th out of 24 in the division, Orient were one lower, so the result was crucial. Scarth had been at Spurs in their First Division Championship winning season in 1951, playing only a handful of games.

The Guinness Book of Records tells us that Tommy Ross, who coincidently played for Ross County in Scotland scored three in 90 seconds on 24th November 1964. Only18 years old, his record was based on timing done by the goalkeeper,however the Guinness recorders credited him with the effort.

On 1st November 1961, the much travelled Harry Middleton notched 4 for Portsmouth in their league game with Derby at Fratton Park. Middleton had played previously and scored regularly, for Walsall, Mansfield, Shrewsbury and later for Scunthorpe and Wolves.

Here are three more triple occasions, just for fun.

In February 2004, James Hayter's parents left the ground early, during Bournemouth's league game aganst Wrexham, with minutes to go.
Brought on as a sub, in the next 140 seconds, James scored three and changed the game. His family never saw it.

Robert Lewandowski recently saved German embarrassment when his team was struggling only 1-0 up, in the Euro 2016 qualifying match against Georgia; he scored 3 in the final 4 minutes of the match (3'59") to help with goal difference.

Arif Erden of Turkey, beat this with a 3 minute trio, starting at 89 minutes into the match v Northern Ireland in 1999 Euro Qualifier.