CHRISTMAS DAY FOOTBALL-LIGHT RELIEF FOR SOME.

These days there is a sort of "truce" in football over Christmas Day. In the past players have had to turn out, perform and hopefully earn some cash to pay for the presents. What better for the lads, players and watchers than to have a distraction away from the family, the sofas and repeats of Morecambe and Wise on the telly??

The first Christmas Day league match was played in 1889 between  Preston North end, known as The Invincibles after winning the Double the season before and Aston Villa. Preston won 3-2 with 9000 watching.

The year before Everton played three times in two days. On Christmas Day morning they beat Blackburn Park Road 3-2 in a Lancashire Cup tie and in the afternoon completed an "Exhibition" match v Ulster FC winning 3-0. On Boxing Day their match against Bootle was distrubed by hail and no goals!

On Christmas Day 1890 Blackburn Rovers were scheduled to play a local derby against Darwen FC at Ewood Park. The Rovers sensing a more important game on Boxing Day against Wolves fielded a reserve side and this led to a riot after Darwen at firsdt refused to play and they then fielded a weakened side much to the displeasure of the crowd, who thought (knew) they had been short-change.

In 1914 the World War One truce was a more important Christmas Day event, though reports of the two armies famously sharing gifts, carols and football matches are exaggerated by some. This link explains more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zxsfyrd

The last Christmas Day "full card" was in Scotland in 1971. Two matches were played in Scotland in 1976 with St Mirren and Clydebank 2-2, Alloa beat Cowdenbeath 2-1 in the Second.

In England, Blackburn beat Blackpool 1-0 at home in 1959 in the First Division (see recent blog)  and Coventry beat Wrexham 5-3 in the Third. if you want to  get away from the family today, have a read of this link:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/dec/19/theknowledge.sport