ANNIVERSARIES AND DEBUTS

I missed this notable anniversary recently on the 11th October. On the 11th October 1958, Bill Nicholson's new club as manager, Tottenham Hotspur played Everton at White Hart Lane. The Spurs set the place alight with a 10-4 victory. As a 7 year old, I collected the newspaper reports and put them in my scrapbook.

10 years later (on 27th August) Everton won the day with a 4-0 victory over Newcastle United. Tony Cottee, with a record transfer fee of £2.2 million paid by Everton to West Ham, hanging around his neck, settled the Toffees' nerves with a goal after 34 seconds and he finished his ddebut with a hat trick.

On the "first name and surname" theme, goalkeeper Tony Coton, who had just joined Birmingham City on December 27th 1980, cheered up the faithful Blues with a penalty save after just 1 minute, when colleague Joe Gallagher fouled in the penalty area and Coton saved John Hawley's spot kick.

Having left Birmingham City for Nottingham Forest for the first ever £1 million transfer, Trevor Francis made his club "debut" for the Forest "A" XI in a Midland Intermediate League match against Notts County, hence the programme shown below. Two weeks later he made his League debut against Bristol City at the City ground, as Brian Clough kept the "young man's" feet firmly on the ground and announced Francis' arrival in a modest club game. Francis was ineligible to play in Europe until the European Cup Final, but of course, he marked his European debut with a goal against Malmo in Munich's Final.

In another Reserve league, the Central League, one designed for Football League Reserve Teams, Tony "Pongo" Waring made his debut for Aston Villa in February 1928. This was never going to be a small affair since the match was a local derby against Birmingham City, so nearly 24,000 turned up to witness Pongo score a hat trick in a 6-3 win at Villa Park. Waring went on to score 49 goals in the 1930-1 season and 159 goals in 216 appearances overall. A legend, he scored on his debut for England in 1931, but only won 5 caps, scoring 4 goals. In November 1935 he was transfered to Barnsley as Villa struggled at the bottom on the First Division and Waring needed a change. After that, he turned out for Wolves, Tranmere Rovers, Accrington Stanley, Bath City and Ellesmere Port.
In 1980 Pongo died and his ashes were scattered at the Holte End!