A LOAD OF COBBOLDS

I had an email from an old colleague, who has retired to Felixstowe and who is a full on Ipswich Town fan. I guess this is due to his family roots (he should tell me) and the fact that he went to Charterhouse School, the Alma Mater of the Ipswich Football Club family, The Cobbolds, famed for their Tolly Cobbold Brewery.
He also returned to teach at the school when he had completed his university "stretch".

Thomas Clement Cobbold was the founding father of the Suffolk club in 1878. He was at Charterhouse from 1848-51, when it was a London based school  and Thomas became the Conservative MP for Ipswich in 1876 and instilled in his club "the principles of fair play". His players were scrimmagers and dribblers, very much after the style of the Carthusians and their old boys who went on the dominate amateur football in the late 19th Century.

Thomas' nephew, William Neville Cobbold, was known as the "Prince of Dribblers" and was a leading player for the Old Carthusians and England in the 1880s. I could write a whole blog on him.....in fact I might, tomorrow or maybe the day after.

The Old Carthusians are recorded as playing an AFA Cup match against Ipswich Town on January 2nd 1933. The teams play at Ipswich and drew 4-4, meeting again on the 9th losing 2-4 at home. The club turned professional eventually in 1936 and were elected to the Football League two years later, joining the relatively youthful Third Division South in 1938. They came 7th that year and were ahead of Clapton Orient, a side that left the FL after the war, continuing at the lower level.

POST WAR CHANGES

30th August 1919 was an auspicious date for Football League clubs, returning from the First World War.
West Ham played their first game in the Second Division against Lincoln City, drawing 1-1 at Upton Park.
https://www.whufc.com/club/history/greatest-matches/west-ham-united-1-lincoln-city-1
The image below shows The Hammers first programme as a Football League team.

image: https://www.whufc.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/1919-v-lincoln-programme.jpg

 

The Second Division was expanded from 20 clubs in 1914-15 to 22 and the First Division also expanded to 22. Glossop disappeared from the league in this change over, Coventry was included, as were Rotherham County.
Leicester lost the appendage "Fosse" during the War gap.
Port Vale, Stoke, South Shields were added and Tottenham dropped down from Division One. So 44 teams started the new era and in 1919-20 a Third Division was added as the country settled down.

In 1924, on this day, Crystal Palace their first game at Selhurst Park, playing (Sheffield) Wednesday, which the Yorkshire team won 1-0. This was a Second Division match and at the end of the season Palace were relegated to Division Three with Coventry. Wednesday came 14th. By now the Third Divisions North and South had been introduced.

WOULD THIS CHEER UP JOSE?

I suspect a few Manchester United fans, players, backroom staff, manager and investors would wish that this score line could be replicated sometime soon, to raise spirits.

This victory occurred on August 28th 2011 at Old Trafford in the Premier League, when Arsenal conceded 8 goals for the first time since 1896. The 1896 result was a 0-8 defeat on December 12th at Loughborough Town in the Football League Division 2. Arsenal ended up 10th in the division and Loughborough 13th.

Manchester United joined the Football League in 1892 when they were put straight into the First Division as it grew from 14 to 16 clubs. This was the first season of two Football League divisions and Newton Heath (later to be Man Utd) came bottom of Division One but were not relegated as the FL grew. Division Two was made up from 12 teams.

In 1893-4 the Football League continued with two divisions, Division One had 16 clubs and Newton Heath came bottom again and were relegated. Meanwhile, Woolwich Arsenal joined Division Two during this season, coming 9th in the division.

The first official match between the United and Arsenal was played between Newton Heath and Woolwich Arsenal, who visited and played out a 3-3 draw on October 13th 1894. (Makes you wonder how they would have travelled?) At the end of that season, Newton Heath were 3rd and Woolwich Arsenal 9th in the div.

Here are two of Arsenal original crests, including the first one from 1888 (sadly slightly out of focus) and number 2, the Crest of the Borough of Woolwich on which is was based.
The "Art Deco" one (below/below!) from the early 1950s, is classy don't you think?


More recently, Arsenal were beaten 2-6 by United on 28th November 1990 in the League Cup.
Overall, results between the two clubs result have been; Arsenal won 82 games, United 98, with 47 drawn.

Down the road in North London on 27th August 1988, Paul Gascoigne's debut for Tottenham v Coventry, in the first match of the season, was delayed because of unfinished building of the South Stand at White Hart Lane! Now there's a coincidence.

A LOAD OF HOT AIR-ANOTHER BLOG!

It's amazing who you meet on a balloon flight. I happened to be in a hot air balloon  with a wicker basket, this very early morning, gently drifting with a south westerly over the Peak District from Tissington to Chatsworth. This was a present from my children that my wife and I enjoyed very much indeed. The landscape from above is remarkable and the "White" Peak District exceptional, with deep river gorges, ridge and furrow medieval field systems and sheep and cattle that responded to the scary thing floating overhead and of course the strange noises the burners made.

On the way back to the launch pad, I discovered I had been journeying with a serious retired footballer of "my age", travelling with his grandson. Grandad was Phillip Shrewsbury and I inevitably got onto football because I was looking for a football club to photograph from the air. I only found Darley Dale FC in camera shot, a village pitch with little dug outs, so fairly serious.

More interesting was Shrewsbury Senior, who had played at Notts County  in the 1960s/70s and coached too. He comes from Hucknall, so his interest was in the Midlands. He had played for both Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Schoolboys because he attended a school that had a foot in both counties, so Phil had two choices. He probably would have played for one of the counties at the ESFA Easter Festival for U18 county teams and if so, I reckon we must have passed by at some stage, either at Bognor Butlin's, Derbyshire Miners' Welfare Holiday camp at Skegness, venues chosen by ESFA to keep prices down! My best memory of Butlins was when the holiday camp approved an international Girl Guides' Convention inhabiting the holiday camp at the same time as we testosterone charged footballers. A whole new meaning to tiki taka, Akela!

Sadly, my research has not revealed much more about Phil although we had a good chat about Jimmy Sirrel, whom he used to have on a touchline watching the Notts County FC U15s, a team that Phil coached. Jimmy liked to have a word with the lads at half time just to show that he was interested in the "academy", but Phil said that once Jimmy had finished his inspiring chat, none of the kids could understand a word he said, so Phil interpreted quickly before the kick off.
Here's a previous blog on Jimmy....
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/is-that-you-in-statue-jimmy.html
If Phillip happens to read this and can send me a few words around his c.v. I would be pleased to receive them.

Test: Name the 7 players whose name is DAVID who has won the Premier League....apparently only 7.

JURGEN'S THROW IN COACH

So today the news is that Liverpool and the ever inventive Jurgen Klopp have appointed a throw in coach to help his professional footballing squad with their "throw ins". In recent decades Ian Hutchinson (1970 Cup Final), Rory Delap, a Republic of |Ireland international, threw huge throws into opposition penalty areas relentlessly in the late 1990s and early 2000s) and Megan Campbell, yes even a lady from the Republic of Ireland, have made the news by creating goal scoring opportunities from the "harmless" throw in. Hutchinson by all accounts had an extension of his spine and was double-jointed in his shoulders, hence the ability to produce a windmill throw.
There are others of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO2s4iHyFb8

Thomas Gronnemark, a Danish soccer coach will be brought into the Liverpool training ground a couple of times a month, on a part time basis.
He has worked with Schalke 04, Hertha Berlin and FC Midtjylland, showing off his World record 51.33 metres. He also coaches the Danish bobsleigh team (any mountains in Denmark?) and national athletics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1SVcjYY6TE

As you appreciate, attention to detail is vital at the top level! There are approximately 85 throw ins taken during a match, so defending or attacking throws are both important.
What if an opposing player stands within a metre of the thrower and jumps up and down?
What if the thrower lets go of the ball with part of his foot inside the pitch?
Why is the touchline called the touchline?
Can you be offside from a throw in?
Can you use a towel to dry the ball?
Can you score directly from a throw in?
Can the goalie pick up a throw in back to him?
Here's more on throw ins.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-throw-away-line.html

LADIES ENERGISED

 From one FA Cup tie to another. Above is the Chelsea ladies squad winning last season's final and below is the sign of the energy business sponsors, SSE.
Just a few miles over the "watershed" from South Yorkshire's Penistone, where yesterday I watched the town team lose in the men's FA Cup, lies West Yorkshire's Hepworth village.
With a population of a couple of thousand, Hepworth is nestled in the Holme Valley (some of you may remember "Last of the Summer Wine"-the soul of the area was well documented in that long standing series). Hepworth United Football Club punches well above its weight at all levels. It runs three senior mens' teams and around 15 youth teams and two Ladies/Girls' teams, with a third in the pipeline.

Today, the Ladies First team are involved in their first SSE FA Cup, meeting Chesterfield FC Ladies at 2pm in the Preliminary Round. Hepworth's success is due mainly to the energy of the Hepworth's team manager, John Field and his coaching staff, who have built a reputation over the past decade or so.

It may be a chastening experience for the Chesterfield Ladies and supporters, whose 50 seater coach will not get anywhere near the Far Lane ground, which is sited on a very narrow country road on the edge of the village.
John Field has arranged to meet the coach about a mile away from the ground and guide them "by foot" to the venue. It is raining steadily.....no perhaps need to paint changing rooms dark pink (blue??) or turn the heating down!!

Should the home ladies win, they are drawn against the Yorkshire Amateur Ladies next week in what will be the First Round Proper, in which 73 ties are scheduled. Thanks to SSE for their sponsorship and thanks to John Field and his "team" for their energy!!

RUNCORN

August, new season, Leagues getting sorted out, The Emirates FA Cup competition is already on the move. The Extra Preliminary Round involving 184 fixtures got the ball rolling on the 11th August, with winners' prize money amounting to £2250 and £750 to the losers.

Penistone Church FC came through their "Extra" cup match against Bootle 2-1. Next opponents for Church were Runcorn Town, who eventually beat Hemsworth Miners' Welfare after a 1-1 draw.

Tie with most syllables of the round might have been Wellingborough Whitworths FC v Harborough Town FC which produced a dull 0-1.

160 ties made up the Preliminary Round and winners get £2890 and the losers £960. Today I saw Penistone Church host Runcorn Town and whilst Church lost 1-3, they had their moments, having conceded an early absolute stonker from the Town left sided midfielder, which was worth every penny of my £3 concession entrance fee! Take a few minutes to read this bit of history of the FA Cup.
http://www.thefa.com/news/2016/nov/02/history-of-the-fa-cup
Runcorn Town started out as a club called CKD in 1967, a works team based in the Cheshire region's chemical industry, playing in the Runcorn Sunday League. The town's location on the Mersey estuary and with neighbouring local quarries enabled industries to produce alkali and soaps especially. Other industries located near by are engineering, port activities and tanning (of leather). Runcorn sandstone is the main building stone used in Liverpool Cathedral (and various buildings in New York city!) The town's motto is Navem Mercibus Implere-fill the ship with goods so trade is important.

In 1970 the club named changed to Mond after the "Mond" division of the local ICI plant and they joined the local Saturday League in Warrington. They were later known as Mond Rangers playing in the West Cheshire League and in 2005 they became Runcorn Town, joining the North West Counties League in 2010. Local rivals are Runcorn Linnets.

LITTLE AND LARGE

Guess who...Aston Villa 23rd August 1971.

But you will know who "La Gran Muralla" is! I have just met some Chinese students; they reminded of the Great Wall....yes, you guessed it.....Fraser Forster who joined Celtic 8 years ago, originally signed "on loan". He made 197 appearances for the club with 101 clean sheets (remember this is the Scottish League) and his team won 5 trophies in his time. I first met him when Charterhouse played the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, in an Independent Schools' FA Cup tie in the north east when we soft southerners won; we had quite a team.
Fraser was born in Hexham, joined the famous Wallsend Boys Club in 2001 and played for them, joining Newcastle United academy when he eventually left school, (he should be known as La Muralla Adriano) and then had a wandering with Stockport County, Bristol Rovers, Norwich City all on loan, Celtic where he signed on between 2012-14 and joined Southampton in 2014. I met him last season when the Saints came north to play the Terriers. He has played 6 times for England. Below, in the middle.

Of course from large to Little and that is Brian at the top of the page. He was also born in the North-east, Newcastle actually and he played for Aston Villa from 1970-80 247 times scoring 60 goals. He then went walkabout as a manager: Wolves, Darlington, Leicester, Villa, Stoke, WBA, Hull, Tranmere, Wrexham, Gainsborough Trinity and Jersey??!! yes for a while.
He did actually have a "glittering" career and has devoted his life to football, so well done Brian.

CANTILEVER'S FIRST STAND

23rd August 1958 was Scunthorpe United's first home game in the (then) Second Division against Ipswich, a game that ended as a draw 1-1. It was the highest position that The Irons had reached in their history and the first time the club had appeared on the scoreboard as Scunthorpe United. Prior to that time the club was known as Scunthorpe and Lindsay United-so there was a new name too.

Yes, you guessed it, this is a cantilever stand at the Old Show Ground, Scunthorpe, where United used to play before moving to Glandford Park in 1988.  Since Scunthorpe is in Iron and Steel country, a local firm built the stand as publicity stunt.

The last match played in front of this museum piece was in May at the end of the season, when The Irons moved on, letting the builders in to demolish the historic grandstand and replace it with a supermarket.

It was the first such stand (with no poles supporting the roof to obscure the view as at Hillsborough) to be built in British Football.

THE FIRST PENALTY KICK (in Scotland??)

On this day in 1891 Alex McColl of Renton FC apparently scored the first penalty goal in Scottish League football, at Bank Park, helping his team to beat Leith Athletic 3-2. Other sources suggest that Renton captain J McCall, took the penalty. The following week (29th) McCall had his penalty saved by Vale of Leven keeper, Tom Wilson.

Renton FC, founded in 1890, lies between Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven. The club had just been let back into the Scottish League following suspension after dealing in "professionalism"!! The club withdrew from the League in 1897, playing in Scottish senior football until resigning the league in 1922.
In 1888, Renton the Scottish Cup holders beat West Bromwich Albion, the English Cup holders in a "World Championship tie". see below!

Alex was born in Drymen, Sirlingshire in 1865 and died in 1903...not very old. In his career he played for Vale of Leven, Greenock Morton, Ardwick (in Manchester), Accrington, Burnley and then Renton endn=ing up at the Vale of Leven in his twilight years! he played one international game for Scotland v wales, playing in a 2-2 draw.
Renton kit 1882-5
There is a Renton 1872 FC playing in the Glasgow Amateur Sunday League. Their ground Tontine Park was sold for housing.

Here is a bit of light relief in the form of penalty taking
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/pay-penalty-or-panenka.html

On the 22nd August 2007, Germany beat England, the last game at the old Wembley. Lampard scored the English goal. It also marked the first "Match of the Day" in 1964, a showing on BBC2, between Liverpool and Arsenal. The TV audience was not much more than the crowd at Anfield.

POMO

It was reported today that Norwich City has painted the away team dressing in deep pink in an attempt to reduce the players testosterone levels during the match preparation, an idea introduced by Dr Alexander Latinjak, a psychologist from the University of Suffolk (not Norfolk note??). Such tactics and attention to detail are inspired by other sports, most commonly from the devious American Football clubs!
So far this season, Norwich have lost to WBA in the league 3-4 and beaten Stevenage in the League Cup. Effective? It is all about "marginal gains" apparently.
Such attempts to gain any advantage over your opponents is not recent. John Beck was famous for creating havoc with the away dressing room at his clubs; Cambridge United.....

Louis van Gaal's Manchester United complained that their dressing room was too hot when they visited Wolfsburg in the Champions League, a game they lost 2-3.

At the Stadium of Light, Sunderland painted the opposition's changing room a blue with yellow tinge which apparently induced sickness and colds and at Benfica there were huge posters of aggressive home fans pasted on the walls.

At the Emirates, a large cupboard central in the away dressing room obscured the players' heads should they be sitting on the team benches by their lockers. Mind you the rest of it looks pretty good...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U_7fClb3yc
The Crazy Gang, AFC Wimbledon, never stopped improvising and turning the heating down in winter and interfering with the hot water was one favourite, along with loud music from the boom box!

At Anfield the away dressing floor was dangerously slippery, whilst other dressing rooms have been known to be L-shaped to prevent universal eye contact with the coach.

At Stamford bridge the coat hooks were ridiculously high up making players stretch and put pressure on their ankles....can you believe this? whilst the helpful "tactics board" was on the back of the main door in which had a notice stating that the door must be kept open in case of fire.
Bizarre chairs in the Russian Anzhi Makhachala away dressing room greeted Spurs in the Europa League tie-Spurs won 2-0.
Don't get me on Beck's slightly flat warm up balls generously provided by the home team for the oppo and the long grass in the corners of the pitch to slow down the "long ball", a valuable tactic of some  of our POMO clubs (position of maximum opportunity).

I might add, the opposition, North Gawber, coming out of the away dressing room at Far Lane, Hepworth, last Saturday, complained that their dressing room was too hot....they won't be complaining in December! They won 4-0?!!

THE BRAIN OF BURNLEY

Another rave from my childhood was wondering how Burnley could possibly have won the First Division League Championship (in those days the top division) in 1959-60, pipping Wolves by one point, when there were so many other great teams.

Dominant teams in the late 1950s were Wolves, Champions in 1957-8 (in front of Preston) and again in1958-9 (with Man Utd second) and of course Manchester United (1955-6 by 11 points) and 1956-7 (by 8 points). So Burnley's success was a bit of a surprise.

In that team was Jimmy McIlroy, the Brain of Burnley, a Northern Ireland international, who played as an inside forward, appearing 497 times, scoring 131 goals for the modest Lancashire club.
Born in 1931 in  Lambeg, Antrim, he played for Glentoran in 1949 and then was transferred to Burnley in 1950 where he stayed until 1962.

He was very much an influence during Burnley's remarkable First Division win, under the care of manager Harry Potts, and the Clarets FA Cup Final appearance in 1962, when they were beaten 3-1 by an in form Tottenham.
In that season Burnley also got to the Quarter-final of the European Cup, losing to Hamburg 5-4 in a two leg tie.

In 1962 he went to Stoke City, a club signing on some well respected professionals at the twilight of their careers, including Stanley Matthews, Jackie Mudie and Dennis Viollet. The Potters won the Second Division in 1962-3 and McIlroy stayed with Stoke until 1965 playing nearly 100 games. In 1964 he appeared in the League Cup Final, losing 3-4 to Leicester City. His final game fro Stoke was against Burnley on December 27th 1965.
He then had a short playing spell at Oldham until 1967, latterly as player-manager and then he had a very short spell with Bolton.

In 1958 he was part of the successful Northern Ireland team that reached the Quarter-final of the Swedish World Cup, losing to France 0-4. Overall he played 55 times for N. Ireland and scored 10 times.

He ignored approaches and lucrative wages from Sampdoria in Italy and River Plate in Argentina, choosing to stay in Britain! He was given the Freedom of Burnley Borough in 2008 and the MBE in 2011 for his services to Charity.
There is a stand at Turf Moor named after Jimmy.
He died on August 20th, an anniversary of the Foundation of Professional Football.
http://www.claretsmuseum.com/wallmcilroy.html

NOT CONCEDING AT READING

 Steve Death...good name for a goalkeeper? He played for Reading FC  and played over 470 games for them. During their 1978-9 season he was one reason why Reading managed to win promotion from Division 4 following 11 games when they did not concede a goal between the 28th March 1979 and then end of the season;
after beating Grimsby Town 4-0 at Elm Park,
the Royals then drew with Port Vale 0-0 at home,
beat Crewe A. away 2-0,
then Portsmouth 2-0 h,
drew with Bournemouth 0-0 away,
beat Aldershot 4-0 at home,
drew 0-0 with Hartlepool a,
won at home v Darlington 1-0,
beat Halifax 1-0 h,
and Wimbledon 1-0 at home,
ending with a win at Port Vale 3-0.
There were 1103 minutes of football with no goals against, until on the opening day of the new season on 18th August 1979 in Division 3, Reading drew 2-2 with Brentford at Elm Park. The first goal let in was scored by Stewart Henderson, a Reading player!
This record was broken by Edwin van der Sar in 31st January 2009 when United played Everton.
Death retired in 1982 and worked as a green keeper at Mapledurham golf course. He died in 2003 at 54 years old.

On the 19th August 1975, Alex Stepney was so animated shouting at his defenders at Birmingham City, that he dislocated his jaw and had to be taken to hospital.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/9175676/Strangest-football-injuries.html

HEPWORTH-NEW FIELDS TO PLAY ON

TODAY we send best wishes to Hepworth United FC, our local village club, that has won back to back promotions since joining the Sheffield and Hallamshire County League (Level 11) three years ago.

Bob Wright manages a talented squad, drawn from the Holme Valley and his senior adult team will play their first match in the Premier Division against North Gawber Colliery from near Barnsley. This will be a tough and earthy initiation, but bet your life that Hepworth will give a good account of themselves.

Clubs such as Dodworth Miners Welfare, Grimethorpe Colliery and Wombwell Main FC will make up some of their opposition this season. Dodworth won the Division One title last season comfortably whereas Hepworth came third and were promoted.
https://twitter.com/HepworthUnited?lang=en

The senior reserve team continue their campaign in the Huddersfield and District League having finished a respectable 5th last season, playing against first teams from the Huddersfield District.

Hoping to emulate their club's adult players are 17 junior sides ranging from U18 to U7 with U5/6s meeting weekly for fun football under the watchful eye of Russ Kaye.

Add to this lot a senior ladies' team, an U17 "girls" squad and hopefully this season an U12 squad. John Field is responsible for the strength and enthusiasm of ladies football at Hepworth. Hepworth "bats well above its average".

During this week the club hosted a Huddersfield Town FC Roadshow when 60 local children enjoyed fun football coached by Town's Community staff.
We wish all our teams the best of luck for the coming season, as they enjoy playing either at Far Lane, in front of the new clubhouse or on the road.

PEGASUS AND KEN SHEARWOOD

Ken Shearwood is another gentleman football who has influenced the development of the game. Like Ebenezer Cobb Morley, Shearwood was an innovator around Association Football and he inspired many thousands of young footballers when he taught at Lancing College, a soccer playing independent school, on the Sussex coast. I was lucky enough to meet Ken on many occasions when our school teams played their annual matches. He was a legendary schoolmaster who taught a variety of subjects, most comfortably History and English.

Born in 1921 in Derbyshire, he was educated at Shrewsbury School and by the time he started his university career at Liverpool, reading Architecture, the war started and he joined the Royal Navy and saw action especially in the Mediterranean; he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
His post war employment involved a Cornish lugger moored in Mevagissey and fishing. Feeling that this was not going to be lucrative, he applied to Cambridge and Oxford Universities and influenced by his all round ability, Brasenose College gave him a place to read History.

After war, along with Harold Thompson, an Oxford don, he helped form Pegasus, an amateur football team, made up purely from Oxbridge footballers who were still at the universities or had left the previous season (the one year law).
Shearwood was pivotal as a centre-half and central to the club's administration. This team of young students shook the amateur world of football, playing in the FA Amateur Cup for 5 seasons and winning it in 1951 (beating the powerful Bishop Auckland 2-1) and 1953 (beating Harwich and Parkestone 6-0). Both games attracted 100,000 spectators at Wembley. The club continued to entertain in cup competitions through to 1963 when their supply of new blood, Oxbridge graduates, found other clubs to join, particularly the Corinthian Casuals. So Pegasus "had flown".
Ken, a sturdy centre-half,  getting the "elbow"; he gave as good as he got!
The FA were generous in encouraging this "experiment" especially since Pegasus did not play in a league, but the Association supplied coaches to organise the team and these included Arthur Rowe (of Spurs fame), Joe Mercer, Malcolm Allison and Vick Buckingham (below) also of Spurs.

Having left Oxford, as captain of the soccer team and a member of the cricket team, he moonlighted as a travelling salesman selling gentleman's clothing and then joined Lancing College in 1952.

As a teacher he was inspiring and his commitment to the school was full on, running the football for 22 years, master in charge of cricket for 6 years and a boarding housemaster from 1958-1975. I met Ken in 1974, just as I started working at local rivals, Charterhouse. He was always interested in the Charterhouse fixture and indeed took time to watch my son play in various inter-school matches when we made the trip south.

Ken retired at 65 years old, continuing as the College registrar for ten years. He would have been the first contact that young children and parents would have as they sought to apply to Lancing for an education, a five year commitment and usually not a very cheap! "He inspired confidence in prospective parents and pupils" at an important time of their education.

He wrote several books, "Pegasus", the one that I have been most interested in, an autobiography "Hardly a Scholar" and "Whistle the Wind", a narrative of his time in Cornwall's fishing industry!

Ken died on July 5th 2018 at 96 years old. Nice man!

EBENEZER COBB MORLEY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQuPmB5T6gc

If you hit this link and you may have done already, you will discover that Google is celebrating the birth of Ebenezer Cobb Morley in 1831, born at Hull. The opening page gives you a bit of a clue to who he is. He was the son of a minister and became a Yorkshire solicitor, who eventually found himself in London at the age of 22, forming the Barnes Football Club and spending a fair amount of time rowing on the Thames, founding the Barnes and Mortlake Regatta in 1862.

The Mirror explains much of his achievement:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/ebenezer-cobb-morley-facts-football-13089083

Having written to Bell's Life announcing the standardisation of the laws of football in 1863, he then brought various clubs together to form an Association. This took place at the Freemasons' Tavern on October 26th from which Morley became secretary of the FA for three years and then President from 1867-1874. (visit the pub to see a memorial board)
The pages below are a copy of the original 13 Laws set by the meeting of the Football Association, now resting in the National Football Museum in Manchester.

Morley played for Barnes in the first ever match played to the new laws, against Richmond and he scored in the first representative game between London and Sheffield club in 31st March 1866. Sheffield of course was ploughing its own furrows with their own laws and the two "cities" came together to agree an improved version.
All this sparked our great game and this kind of "action"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1SVcjYY6TE
There will be an unveiling of a Blue Plaque dedicated to Morley at the Hull History Centre on Saturday at 10am.

PREMIER LEAGUE 1992

In 1992 on August 15th, the first Premier League matches were played. Brian Deane of Sheffield United scored the first goal in the PL after 4 minutes and 36 seconds, playing Manchester United, the eventual champions.
https://www.premierleague.com/match/8
His second goal after 50 minutes came from a penalty, making it 2-0 and the United consolation goal was scored after 61 minutes following a Peter Schmeichel "assist"  by Mark Hughes. Sheffield United won.
On that day, Spurs could only drawn away at Soton, Leeds beat Wimbledon 2-1 at Elland Road, Arsenal lost 2-4 to visitors Norwich, Chelsea, at home, drew 1-1 with Oldham.
The Blades came 14th in the league.
The Founder Members Agreement was confirmed on 17 July 1991, establishing the basic principles of the Premier League. The PL had commercial independence from the Football Association and the Football League. The First Division clubs resigned from the Football League en masse and formed the new "League" of:
Arsenal, AVilla, Blackburn R, Chelsea, Coventry, CPalace, Everton, Fulham, Leeds United, Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Middlesbrough, Norwich, NForest, Oldham Athletic, QPR, Sheff W, Sheff U, Southampton, Spurs, Wimbledon....22
Those underlined were relegated.
The PL was reduced to 20 clubs in 1995 when four clubs were relegated and only 2 promoted from the Championship.
Overall Man U have won 13 titles, Man City 3, Blackburn Rovers 1, Arsenal 3, Chelsea 5 and Leicester City 1

DROPPED BALL

I watched a game recently where an incident occurred that neither side benefited from, nor lost from; it was a stray ball on the pitch that had left the reliable hands of a ball boy chosen from the junior team member of the home club. It is quite rightly regarded as an honour for young lads to be inside the barrier as ball boys, so near to their adult heroes!

The referee blew his whistle, play stopped, the stray ball was removed and the ref negotiated a "re-start" from where the ball was played as he called the game to a halt. It could have been at a place where one team gained an significant advantage, but usually the ref waits for a neutral bit of play to blow his whistle.

When there is no other possible restart (that's what they are called-a free kick, throw in, etc) the dropped ball is the solution, offering no particular advantage to either side.
There might have been a serious injury, interference from an outside agent (a dog running on the pitch), or the ball getting dangerously trapped under a player who is on the ground.....there are lots more incidents of course!

So the ref could could just drop the ball once he has made all the players aware of his decision. There is no ruling that says there must be one player from each side. Actually, that is what normally happens and this often brings a confrontation that can spark off another free kick! Depends if you put your clogger into the "duel".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0umwJvtQXC8
Often these days the players decide who deserves the possession, such as a pass to the opposition goalie, and everybody claps their sportsmanship!

Originally there was a "throw up" where I guess heading was the next touch and in 1905, like Aussie Rules, there was a "bounce up". In 1914 the dropped ball came into being, where the ball must touch the ground. The ball should be dropped from about the ref's waist height not bounced so the next contact is often close to the ground, around the shins.

Dropped balls inside the goal area were banned in 1984 to avoid too much "competition" and taken by the ref outside the six yard box.

A goal can be scored from a dropped ball.
In January 1999, the Preston NE goalie kicked the ball out to allow a Wrexham player, who had a head injury, some treatment.
The dropped ball took place about 30  yards from the Preston goal.
The Preston players stepped aside to allow the Wrexham player, Jeff Whitley, to pass the ball back to the Preston keeper. Whitley's superb half volley cleared the Preston goalies' head and into the net.
The ref disallowed the goal and awarded Preston an indirect free-kick for "unsporting behaviour". I suggest Whitley didn't mean to score!

The dropped ball is the only restart where a player may play the ball twice before it is played by any one else.

ABANDONED RED CARD

On the subject of abandoned matches, Frank Lampard might have wished there was an abandonment at Pride Park on Saturday when Leeds United came along and thumped the Rams 4-1.

On this day in 1997, poor old Derby County were winning 2-1 against Wimbledon FC as they were then, in their first ever Premier League match at the brand new Pride Park when the lights went out.

After 56 minutes Uriah Rennie "pulled the plug" on the game when the floodlights could not be mended. The game was re-staged later and the teams drew 1-1.

In 2005 in the Peterborough and District Sunday league, Peterborough North End played the Royal Mail AYL in a Division 2 game. The North End goalie let in a goal that put his team 1-2 down and he was unhappy about the goal, which he claimed had involved a foul on one of his defenders. The referee, 39 year old Andy Wain, objected to the outburst and since he had been suffering previously from personal issues, he lost his confidence, threw his whistle down on the floor  and "sent himself off" after 63 minutes. Inevitably the game was abandoned, since there was nobody to replace him, and had to be replayed later.

This sending off took 10 seconds....you don't need to watch the whole of this clip.
http://int.search.mywebsearch.com/search/video.jhtml?enc=0&id=XNxdm019YYgb&n=77edc526&pg=video&pn=1&ptb=308DCB58-2A13-42C4-993A-77A59B6C34C6&ptnrS=XNxdm019YYgb&qs=&searchfor=Referee+gives+himself+red+card&si=CJeTnrb1k7ECFZMctAodh14dkA&ss=sub&st=sb&tpr=sbt

POMPEY NOT ECLIPSED

I know this is the 12th but this one is too good to miss....On the 11th August 1999, England experienced a total eclipse of the sun and a "1st leg" match in the west country, a Worthington Cup game (League Cup) between Torquay United and Portsmouth at Plainmoor had to be postponed. This was not anything to do with "darkness", which of course would not last for long, it was the local police force who decided they could not cope with large crowds turning up in the area to watch the eclipse and the match. Football lost! The west country is the "best place


to view the eclipse", apparently- yes the path of the eclipse is shown here....bit of astronomy for you! It was due to pass over Devon around midday.


The previous eclipse had been on June 29th 1927, a year that the FA Cup left England for the first and only time.......remember?

The "once in a lifetime experience" didn't upset the cup fixture for long as Pompey played the 1st leg match on the 17th at Torquay, drawing 0-0 and then won 3-0 in the 2nd leg tie on the 24th.
In Round Two they lost 1-6 in the two legged tie against Blackburn Rovers. Alan Ball started a manager that season to be replaced by Tony Pulis in December, who save them from relegation, finishing 18th.

Tomorrow...... the "Glorious Twelfth"....no its not!

TRACAB

It's all happening isn't it! United played last night and Jose seems to be making peace with some of his young players, Huddersfield played this afternoon and I went to witness them lose comprehensively to Chelsea and this evening Frank Lampard's bubble may suffer from getting a poking at Leeds.

Arsenal are waiting in the wings. Under their new coach, Unai Emery, they are experiencing a revolution, replacing Arsene's era of "freedom of expression". Emery is more hands on and plans every training session, dealing with minute detail, to make his players great. When Wenger arrived at Arsenal 22 years ago, he started a revolution. I knew about it when I was on an FA course at Loughborough, where the UEFA A the "syllabus" had changed considerably. Charles Hughes' regimented coaching philosophy had been modernised by the FA with media work, diet and nutrition, water intake, sleep patterns and much more were introduced into the qualification. I remember the legendary Dick Bates referring to military books to inspire us during his lectures and demos.

Emery similarly pays attention to very special details and spends hours analysing his training sessions through videos, checking refuelling habits and most obviously, building a new gym complex at the London Colney training ground, ensuring that sessions move at a pace with few wasted intervals changing sessions, preparing his players for high press, pace and intensity when they take to the field. There are longer days, constant movement between events, more commitment and well, all those other technical words you hear the pundits mentioning on the TV.

Emery spends a twelve hour day at the training ground, this includes his personal English speaking sessions and sharing his ideas with his assistants. He patiently listens to their comments and ideas, whilst his players will be there from 10 till 5pm, enjoying two daily sessions. Even Steve Bould has been retained, maintaining a link with the past, the history of Arsenal and the English "way".  His philosophy is that even "ordinary people" can overcome great obstacles-it is just a matter of involvement.

Motivational videos, purpose planned packages for individual players to pore over and inspirational reading is all part of his revolution. He insists on his players mixing with all staff at London Colney, nobody is too important. He is also choosing five captains! Can you guess them?

All this leads me to tell you about my day at Huddersfield Town where I was lucky enough to own a "season ticket" for the day. My Hepworth United U15s coaching colleague is lounging on a lounger somewhere in the west country; so I had the pleasure of sitting next to Luke Jones who works for Tracab. On contract to the Premier League and English Football League, Tracab analyses all aspects of football (and other sports) and Luke, on a day off, told me about what he does.
It is a long way from the first BBC Football Broadcast on 22nd January 1927, Arsenal v Sheffield United.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/1760579.stm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxaQcXUvgpw

Fascinating stuff and we marvelled at how many jobs the great game of football has created over the years; his included and mine I guess too.

AUGUST 10th

The 10th of August 1974, The Charity Shield was played out between Leeds United and Liverpool at Wembley, the first time the match had been played there. The game was decided by penalties, the first time this method was called into action, and it is more famous for a punch up between Kevin Keegan and Billy Bremner!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej81zIkM9uY

Three years later, on the same day, Kevin Keegan at Liverpool FC was replaced by Kenny Dalglish who signed on from Celtic for £440,000.

Keegan had humble beginnings at Scunthorpe United, signing on for Liverpool in 1971. He then left to play in Hamburg SV for three years. He  went to Southampton, Newcastle and Blacktown City in NSW, Australia, before taking on management. He is now 67 years old!

On the 10th August 2003 Manchester City played for the first time at the City of Manchester Stadium known as Eastlands, now known as the Etihad. They beat Barcelona 2-1 with both goals coming from Anelka. The stadium had been used in 2002 for the Commonwealth Games. My son, Matthew, was one of the last to put a foot on the "stadium centre" before it was converted to football, when he was part of the post Games celebration, having been a "steward" for the period of the games.

THE SILKMEN

http://www.footballsite.co.uk/Statistics/ClubbyClub/ClubHistories/MacclesfieldTown.htm
9th August 1997, was the Football League debut day for Macclesfield Town who played their first league match against Torquay United, beating them 2-1 at the Moss Rose Ground. They won the Vauxhall Conference by 5 points, whilst Hereford United "went down" to take their place.
Founded in 1873 as part of the 8th Cheshire Rifle Volunteers, they became a football club in 1874, joining with the local Olympic Cricket Club, they provided Football and Rugby matches from 1876. By 1878-9, the club was known as Macclesfield Football Club, not becoming known as Macclesfield Town FC (Ltd) until after the Second World War. In September 1891 the club moved to Moss Rose, their present ground, that holds around 6,000 crowd.

Playing in the Conference they won the FA Trophy in 1970 and 1996. They lost the 2017 Trophy Final to York City at Wembley.

The Silkmen (a geographical note needed:- Cheshire seemed to be a perfect location for the silk industry with raw materials arriving at local ports in an environment that had water driven mills and a moist climate to prevent fibres from drying out and snapping- silk buttons were a speciality) won the National League title in 1994-5 and 1996-7, becoming members of the Football League between 1997-2012, reaching their highest Football League place in the old Division Two in 1998-9. They were relegated to the Football Conference in 2011-12 (they failed to win any games in 2012, a total of 25 matches) and stayed in the newly named National League in 2015-16 when the change over occurred.

In 2017-18 they won the National League title, beating Eastleigh 2-0 and were promoted to Football League Two. On August 4th 2018 they played their first football league game of the season, losing to Swindon Town and lie 15th in the division after one game!

7th AND 8th OF THE 8th

 On 7th August in 1978 Manchester United played Real Madrid to celebrate their Centenary. The game played at Old Trafford attracted nearly 50,000 crowd and Sammy McIlroy and Jimmy Greenhoff scored a brace each. final score 4-0

 On the 8th 1987, The Football League celebrated its Centenary with a game against the Rest of the World winning 3-0 at Wembley. 61,000 turned up and South Yorkshire man, Keith Hackett, reffed.
https://www.11v11.com/matches/football-league-v-rest-of-the-world-08-august-1987-240579/  This is worth looking at for those who played.
And Dr Eva Caneiro, on this day in 2015, was belittled by our mate, Jose, as she was trying to do her job, treating Chelsea's injuries (actually Eden Hazard's) against Swansea. Needless to say things were not going well for Jose, so he found somebody to blame. Apparently he is a master (mistress) in deflection; he described her as "naive".  Hmmmm...

And finally on this day in 2006, Gary Taylor-Fletcher scored for Huddersfield Town FC in a Football League One match v Rotherham. It was the 500,000th goal in League history.

BOILER MAN

It is silly season and the club mascots are beginning to get their costumes out, waiting in fear for the 90 plus minutes of sweaty, mirky play acting at their favourite ground and often away! There is great book written on behalf of Barnsley FC's unlikely and short life in the Premier League that has a small chapter in "Life at the Top" by Mark Hodkinson, about "Toby Tyke and the mask of Mystery". Apparently a local librarian, Toby created a world of his own....but that was in 1997-8.

Here is a previous blog about mascots.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/cyril-and-cybil-faulty.html

What caught my eye this week was dear old Bob's West Bromwich Albion, whose mascot of course is a Throstle or is it a Baggie?
Nope not this time; it's a Boiler Man:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/08/04/west-brom-unveil-boiler-man-greatest-ever-mascot/
Excuse language! and as if losing wasn't enough........

His flame must have gone out as Albion lost 1-2 to Bolton Wanderers and the Hull based firm Ideal Boilers sponsor the Baggies kit.
Moonchester
Gunnersaurus
Pottermus....yes Stoke City.

The monster in Yellow is Partick's "Kingsley".
Huddersfield Town have missed a trick having a male and female "terrier" and this season having survived the PL for a season, why no little terrier pups?

TORQUAY TOUR TOO

From "TOURS" to TORQUAY, Saturday was a poignant moment in Torquay's history when they found themselves playing their first ever match in the Vanarama National League South. I was listening to "Talksport" this afternoon and heard a Gulls' fan describing his cultural experience of travelling to Chelmsford where just over a 1,000 crowd watched the game, a number looking through the discus net at the match! Chelmsford's pitch is surrounded by a track, I hope.
https://www.torquayunited.com/news/
Torquay made the cross-country journey from Devon to Essex and came away with a 0-0 draw-a point. They are 6th in the division after one game apparently, The Non-League Paper claims that they won 3-2, whereas they have in print Chelmsford losing 2-4? Cost to enter ground? £15!!!!
 The Chelmsford City club was founded in 1878 and turned professional in 1938 joining the Southern League. Arthur Rowe managed the team in 1945-6; he was better known by his association with Spurs and City's famous players include Jimmy Greaves in 1977 when he helped the club in an Anglo-Italian Cup venture, with Paul Parker 2001-3 and Dean Holdsworth in 2013 as managers.
The fixtures secretary excelled themselves, having Truro City hosting a westerly trip from Billericay Town and sending their visitors away with a 0-4 victory. Truro lie root in League South.
Dartford went to Bath, Gloucester to Concord Rangers, Wealdstone to Weston-Super-Mare. Not too many old Football League clubs in the south.

In the National League North, Stockport County, Hereford (reformed), Boston United, Bradford Park Avenue, Kidderminster, Chester, Darlington, Southport, York City are all past Football League clubs looking to rise up the pyramid.

Other journeys in the National League at the weekend:
AFC Fylde hosting Bromley, Barrow hosting Havant, Halifax to Braintree, Dover hosting Wrexham, Harrogate hosting Sutton, Maidenhead hosting Gateshead, Hartlepool to Maidstone.

A special moment now as Graham Taylor's statue is unveiled at Watford FC; it is very good.
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11686/11460412/watford-unveil-graham-taylor-statue-in-honour-of-clubs-greatest-manager

TOURS

 Yes, on August 4th 2010, Everton played Everton in a pre-season friendly at Goodison Park. The match celebrated 101 years since a group of youngsters living in Chile founded a football club and named it Everton after the English club that had toured their country.
The English Everton won the anniversary game 2-0, winning for the Brotherhood Cup; the match shown live on Chilean TV.

Raith Rovers set off on a tour on June 30th to the Canary Islands, on a liner called "The Highland Loch", which was continuing its journey to Buenos Aires. The club had been successful in 1921-2 coming third in the top division behind the "old firm" and fancied a celebration.

The boat, which was also carrying chilled meat from Britain, ran into difficulties in a storm and was pitched against rocks off Galicia, Northern Spain. The passengers were all rescued, mainly by local fishermen and by climbing down ropes. The tour party of 13 players and 7 officials, got to their Canary destination, unruffled and won four out of four matches against Canarian opposition; they played Vigo, Gran Canaria, Marino and Victoria Las Palmas, scoring 14 and conceding 3.

Looking at the damage done to the boat, it was a miracle that there was not more of a disaster.
There was also a game against Third Lanark-also on tour, but on their way back.
There might have been "dancing in the streets of Raith" when word about the rescue and subsequent tour got back to Scotland. Why was this a "Coleman Balls"?