ST ANDREW'S DAY

The 30th November is of course St Andrew's Day and I know several friends who will tonight, "don" their kilt and sporran and dance around a lot, having piped in a haggis!
A sporran by the way is that pursey thing that dandles down from the waist and is made of sealskin (or leather if you can't get sealskin) and covered in fur.
By coincidence, or was it  an excuse to celebrate being Scottish? The first international match between Scotland and England took place, as details on these links reveal.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/threeheartycheers.html
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/i-want-england-to-win.html

This valuable ticket (it's a copy of course) allowed entry to the game; the World's first international football match.
Marion Wotherspoon neatly sewed on the rampant red lion on to the Scot's dark blue jerseys. Her brother was one of eleven Queen's Park players selected. England fielded three Oxford University players and one from Cambridge University. The rest were a mixture of clubs, 1st Surrey Rifles, Barnes, Sheffield, Crystal Palace, Harrow Chequers, Notts Club and Hertfordshire Rangers. Two of the England players had a half in goal each and Chappell was described as "fly kick"......the Scots didn't have one! Score 0-0.
The teams had dinner at the Royal Hotel, george Square and toasted all and sundry, including the Scotland rugby team, who had played the England rugby team for the first time in Edinburgh a year earlier on March 27th.
The Scots scored 2 tries and 1 goal and England 1 try. KNOW WHY IT'S CALLED A TRY? Because by grounding the ball behind the goal line your team could TRY a kick at the posts! FINAL SCORE 1-0.
(kicks after a try, a dropped kick or a kick from the "penalty" mark counted for points)

LOADS OF GOALS

Yesterday's thriller at Villa Park (28th November) saw the home team
score after 11,14, 36, 71 and 75 minutes while their visitors, Nottingham Forest scored at 3,6,22,51 and 82 minutes. The game "to and froed" with 3-3 at half time and 34,000 in the ground. There have been 127 games between the two clubs beginning in December 1880 in the FA Cup and Villa won away 1-2.
On the 12th November 1892 the teams fought out a 4-5 win for Forest away in the First Division.
Anniversary matches  have not been so exciting with a 2-2 draw in 1998 at Forest and a Villa victory 3-1 at home in 1981.
Villa have won 59 and drawn 30 games.

Boxing Day 1952 saw a nine goal thriller which involved West Bromwich Albion at Sheffield Wednesday, scoring only two goals in a nine goal thriller. Their other three goals came from the two opposing full backs and a Wednesday "half back". Over 59,500 saw them win 5-4.
The very next day, 27th December, at the Hawthorns, the Baggies lost 0-1 with over 52,500 watching.

21st April 1930 Leicester City drew with Arsenal in the First Division 6-6
On 21st December 1957 Charlton Athletic beat Huddersfield Town 7-6 and on  22nd October 1960 Charlton drew with Middlesbrough 6-6 in the Second Division.

Reading lost to Arsenal 5-7 in a Capital One League Cup tie on 31st October 2012. The Gunners were 0-4 down, scoring their first goal in added time tacked on to the first half. Theo Walcott scored 3 including the winner after extra time + 1 minute!

Manchester United beat Swindon Town 8-4 in the 4th Charity Shield on 25th September 1911 at Stamford Bridge with only 10,000 watching. United's Harold Halse scored 6, an individual record for Manchester United. And 60 years later George Best slotted 6 goals against Northampton Town on 7th February 1970 and equalled this club scoring record.
The Charity Shield was originally played from 1898 between the winners of the Football League and Southern League. The proceeds went to Charity and later went to the Titanic Fund. It has had a varied history and is known now as the Community Shield.

In the FA Cup Dulwich Hamlet beat St Albans City 8-7 in an FA Cup 4th Round Qualifying round on 22nd November 1922. They also drew with Wealdstone 7-7 in another 4th Round Qualifier on 16th November 1929.

In a Non-League, FA Vase 1st Round tie, on 20th October 2001, in the North-east of England, Washington Nissan hosted Billingham Synthonia which may be recorded as the "match of syllables". Like the syllables (well 5-7, not quite), it went to 6-6 after 90 minutes, then 9-6 to Synthonia and then Nissan scored one more 9-7.

INTERNATIONAL CAPS FOR CORNWALL

From the other end of the country, my South-west correspondent, R.V.Lewis, alerted me to "The Times" sports' pages today which was reporting on Cornwall declaring its football independence, no doubt concerned about Brexit and so on!

Yorkshire did this recently when the Yorkees played as a separate "independent state"  in the Conifa tournament, the Confederation of Independent Football Associations. I have dealt with this topic before.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/yorkshire-caps.html
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/owah-baht-that-then.html
This is for states and regions not recognised by FIFA.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/05/world-football-geography-lesson.html

The Cornish have a "national" team, known as Kernow, the Cornish word for Cornwall, as do the Isle of Man, Northern Cyprus, Tibet, the Sami nomads from Scandinavia and a dozen or more.

Local Cornish players either move out to further their careers or get ignored by big clubs. Name 6 Cornish based professional footballers?

Phil Lafferty once of Exeter City is the "national" team manager and will hunt for squad players, one of whom will be Jack Stephens, born in Cornwall and now with Southampton.

Next up is next year's Conifa European Cup and the World tournament in 2020.
The Conifa 2018 world champions are Karpatalya representing the Hungarian population of the Ukraine, who beat Northern Cyprus on penalties in June. 16 teams took part including:-
Padania from N.Italy (3rd place), Szekely Land ethnic Hungarians from Romania (4th place)
The tournament was "hosted" by Barawa, the Somalis diaspora in the UK and was played in London.
Cornwall play UK Conifa in a New Year friendly.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-rebel-world-cup.html
It must be serious, PaddyPower is involved.

BEST (and worst) OF THE BEST

On 27th November 2006, to recognise the first anniversary of the death of George Best which was on the 25th, the Ulster Bank printed 1 million £5 notes which were legal tender and of course increased in value rapidly presumable never spent!
This is "his" official website:
http://www.georgebest.com/
and here are some of his BEST moments...Tottenham seems to appear quite a lot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbVatiHiQrc

Born on the 22nd May 1946, he was regarded as one of the all time greats, sadly destroyed by his own fame and a lack of care by the various clubs he played for, after leaving Matt Busby and Manchester United.
He was discovered by Bob Bishop, a United scout, who saw Best after he was discarded by Glentoran FC at 15, for being too small and light. Bob said he "had found a genius", which Best soon proved to the world.
Joe Armstrong, the Chief Scout at United, signed Best on and after some homesickness, which after 2 days caused Best to go home, he settled down to play as an "amateur" (he wasn't allowed to sign on professional terms that young) and he earned money as a runner on the Manchester Ship Canal. he lived in digs and started playing.
Once he got going, he played 470 times and scored 170 goals in club football. He was the United's top scorer for 5 consecutive seasons, scoring 32 goals in 53 games in the 1968 season, when he won the Ballon d'Or and was the FWA Footballer of the Year. Between 1964-77 he won 37 caps for Northern Ireland and scored 9 goals.
Best quit full time football in 1974 at 27 years old and messed around for ten years.
Clubs included:Man U, Jewish Guild (S. Africa), Dunstable Town, Stockport County, Cork Celtic, LA Aztecs, Fulham, Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Hibernian, San Jose Earthquakes, Sea Bee (HK), Hong Kong Rangers, Bournemouth, Brisbane Lions, Osborne Park Galeb, Nuneaton Borough, Tobermore Utd (Ireland).....
It's not fair to go through all the negatives in Best's life, let's leave that to one side.
He died 25th November 2005 aged 59.

To mark his 60th birthday anniversary Belfast City Airport was renamed George Best Belfast City Airport nand he is in various Halls Of Fame.. 

SOUTH LIVERPOOL AND NEW BRIGHTON FC

I am researching South Liverpool Football Club which in the 1890s was known as African Royal (possibly Africa Royal), until 1910, then the club morphed into New Brighton AFC in 1921. 
NBAFC joined the Football League in 1923 and stayed there until 1951 in the Division 3 North, when they came last and were not re-elected.
In 1935 a "second" South Liverpool FC was formed in Garston. The two clubs have played each other since, until NBAFC folded in 2012.
below is a short film of New Brighton playing the Corinthians 14th Jan 1928, FA Cup 3rd Round.
https://www.britishpathe.com/video/well-played-new-brighton/query/New+Brighton

In that period the club applied for election to the Football League ten times and failed each time. The reason why I am getting so excited and I know you are too, is that in September 1949 at their ground, Holly Park, the club hosted the first match to be played under permanent floodlights when in a friendly against a Nigerian XI (the first African team to tour the UK). Over 13,000 turned up to watch and Kenneth Wolstenholme reported the match on behalf of the BBC Overseas Service, now the World Service. KW of course went on to be famous for his commentary on the 1966 World Cup.

In 1967 Ferenc Puskas aged 40 at the time, guested for South Liverpool in another friendly match witnessed by over 10,000. The match was played against an XI featuring Billy Liddell, John Charles, Malcolm Allison, Billy Bingham MBE and Dave Hitchins of Everton, Liverpool. Huddersfield and Tranmere Rovers. You may need to look up some of them.
Billy Liddell was a winger who played nearly 500 games for Liverpool. he was a youth worker, an accountant, a lay preacher and a Justice of the Peace, all before he retired from football. You know the others, don't you?

In 1968 South Liverpool joined the Northern Premier league (notable players include Jimmy Case and John Aldridge) and has since been through various other higher and lower leagues, at present are in the West Cheshire League having won promotions from Division 3 in 2010-11.
In 1987-8 the club became the first non-full professional club to offer Youth Training Schemes to young players.
The club plays at Jericho Lane, Otterspool on Merseyside.

TIGERS BEAT THE CHURCH

Well it all went "bust" up on Saturday at the Memorial Ground, home of Penistone Church FC. I watched this "top table tie" through to the final minutes as visitors, Worksop Town, broke free and won a penalty in the 93rd minute. They had been on the receiving end for much of the game but it could have gone either way. I left a few minutes early and missed the four red cards dished after the pen. Will have to read the press to see what's what!
Church live to "fight" another day though; Twitter described it as "handbags".

Worksop Town has helped the world of football enjoy Wilfred Bartrop, who played for them between 1908-9 and then progressed to Barnsley FC between 1909-14 appearing 160 times. Wilfred then played for Liverpool briefly, an experience interrupted by war. He went to fight and die days before the end of the First World War.

Another hero is Herbert Chapman who despite an undistinguished playing career played at Worksop between 1900-1, he then went on to manage Northampton Town, Leeds City, Huddersfield (very successfully) and then Arsenal (very, very successfully), where he was legendary.
(worth searching this Blog for more on Herbert)

Worksop Town claims the club was founded in 1861, which, if proven, would make them the FOURTH oldest club in the WORLD. Their 1911 "Minute Book" records a celebration for existing 50 years, so we might be persuaded.
Previous to this there is a record of a match between 15 locals and 15 Church players.
In 1882 there is a further reference to a game against Eckington and they joined the Sheffield and Hallamshire League ten years later. Since then they have spent most time in the Midland League and now feature in the North-East Counties premier-Level 9 in the EFL.

Best known "old" players include Alan Hodgkinson, once England goalkeeper (only 5 caps) who played in the shadow of Eddie Hopkinson  and Ron Springett but he earned 576 apps for Sheffield United. There were also Peter Eustace, Chris Waddle and Dean Gordon on the Tigers' roll call. Here's Hodg!

There have been interesting moments in the Tigers' history; notably an FA Cup 1st Round in 1908 against Chelsea at the Bridge, losing 1-9.
In 1923 they drew Spurs again in the 1st Round drawing 0-0 and losing the replay at WH Lane 0-9. Prior to Rd One they had beaten Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Chesterfield.
In 1926 they beat Coventry in the Cup's 1st Rd and then lost to Chesterfield.

EXORCISE RATHER THAN EXCERCISE

Today (24th November) in 2001, Southampton FC had moved from their historic ground, The Dell, to the brand new facility, St Mary's. Originally, it was not a good move as they lost the first four matches and drew one. Apparently some cheeky Portsmouth supporters buried one of their Pompey shirts under the North End stand and cast a curse. This caused the losing streak, apparently.
Fear not, for the Pagan Princess, Ceridwen "Dragonoak" Connelly, a local Celtic witch, was hired in to exorcise (not exercise) the stadium, which had been built on land once known as an Anglo-Saxon village, Hamwick. Clearly there were ghoulies about.

It all went well for The Saints, as Ms Connelly worked her magic successfully and the Saints took on The Addicks (from the ancient valley of Charlton) and in front of over 31,000 witnesses won points off their opponents, in a 1-0 win. Phew..mind you that doesn't explain the plight that Southampton is in at the moment!!

On Friday 24th November 2017 it became known that the once magical footballer, 37 year old Michael Owen, who used to ghost through defences, was going to be a jockey, certainly a trainer of horses and probably a breeder (not personally of course). Michael lost a stone in weight to ride a thoroughbred race horse (looking at Michael this morning on the TV as he did his pundit's job, it appears that he has put it and some more back on). Michael rode Calder Prince to second place in the Prince's Countryside Fund Race at Ascot. Michael's reaction to this was that he likened the experience to playing against Brazil in the World Cup quarter-finals....he came second in that too.

Not far from Southampton are Ken Cunningham-Brown's racing stables and today a man in the know, Richard Lewis, was informed that one of Ken's horses,Waseem Faris, was running in the 2.35 at Lingfield, priced at 10-1. The news got to me too late to put money on and just as well, for the horse was clearly under a spell as it came in 5th.

FARTGATE

There has been some controversy on the oche (pronounced ocky) at a recent Professional Darts Corporation Tournament at Wolverhampton where breaking wind, seemingly silently, has been shared by dart throwers during competition. During the Round of 16, Gary Anderson was accused of ungentlemanly conduct by challenger Wesley Harms. The news article and interview shares some views on this accusation. Harms lost 2-10
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2018/11/darts-fart-gate-explodes-at-grand-slam-of-darts-between-gary-anderson-and-wesley-harms.html

Ronnie O'Sullivan was recently overtly critical of the Crawley K2 Leisure Centre where the English Open took place. Ronnie said he could smell urine in the interview areas and the place was a hell hole.

In a Manchester Sunday League game in March 2009, an unusual booking made the local news when Chorlton Villa conceded a penalty to International Manchester FC. One of the Chorlton players broke wind just as his opposition was about the take the spot kick which was saved.
The wind breaker was booked for "ungentlemanly conduct" and the penalty re-taken.
Villa went on to breeze the game 6-4 and manager Ian Treadwell claimed that only the ref "heard it", so couldn't understand what the fuss was all about. Silentish BD?
Treadwell went on to say that the penalty was saved because "it was a bad one",  not due to a distraction. He also thought the match was full of emotion and as a result, his team had two yellows and three reds given to them.
The opposition thought the whole thing was hilarious and no animosity between the two teams.

In Sweden, Adam Ljungkvist was sent off for breaking wind several times in a reserve league game against Pershagen SK. He was awarded two yellows and then the red! I just had a upset stomach Adam claimed....the referee accused me of farting in my hand and throwing it at him-he was just playing with the wind.

ORIENTATION

You have heard of Leyton Orient but their original name was Clapton Orient. On 22nd November 1930 in the club's first season in the Third Division South (as it was in those days) having been relegated from the Second Division, Orient played at Wembley Stadium against Brentford (a treat for both clubs) and won 3-0 in front of a 8319 crowd.
The Orient's home ground, Lee Bridge Road was closed for alterations. Two weeks later they played Southend, at Wembley again, winning  3-1. Barely 2,000 turned up mainly due to terrible weather.

Two Wyverns face each other, in mythology the "defender of the Thames".
Originally known as Glyn Cricket Club in 1881, the club members were mainly students from the Independent College, Homerton located in Hackney. The college now resides in Cambridge and is part of the university, a teacher training college. An annual cricket fixture is still held between the club and the college, I believe.

The club was renamed as Orient Football Club in 1888, the name apparently originated from a player Jack R. Dearing who was an employee of the Orient and Peninsular Shipping Company. In 1898 the club name changed to Clapton Orient after the part of London they played in, although there was another team known as Clapton FC close by, a ground known as the Spotted Dog, which I did grace a few decades ago.

During the First World War, 41 members of the Orient club joined up as soldiers to "The Pals", the 17th Battalion of the Middlesex Regt. made mainly of footballers. Many sacrificed themselves in the Great War.
The then Prince of Wales visited the club play Notts County in 1921 to show his gratitude for the support the club gave the war effort.

After the 2nd World War, the club's name changed to Leyton Orient FC, although there was a club already known as Leyton FC.
In 1966 the club decided to call itself just Orient after the Borough of Leyton was absorbed into the Borough of Waltham Forest.
In 1987 the club's name reverted to Leyton Orient. The home ground of Brisbane Road, with a capacity of under 10,000, has real estate on each corner, earning a few £££ for the landlords.

Before their recent relegation out of the Football League on 22nd April 2017, Leyton Orient was the second oldest club from London playing in the Football League, and 24th oldest in the country playing in the FL. The club had been in the FL for 112 years.

BUNG, SHILTS, NO SAINT, FOG, SCOUT

21st November 1967 was a busy day for footballers including Peterborough United's boys. The Posh were told they were going to be relegated at the end of the season from Division 3 to Div 4 due to financial irregularities.
Illegal payments were made to beat Sunderland during an FA Cup tie the previous season. Posh lost 1-7 on the day.

On the same day in 1974, Peter Shilton signed for Stoke City for £325,000, a record for a GK at the time and he helped the Potters beat his old club, Leicester City, a week later 1-0 to go top of the First Division.
In the Stoke team were Pejic, Greenhoff, Hudson, Robertson and Hurst...an old boys' reunion.

Jimmy Greaves, another old boy in 1977, was 37 years old and he was playing for Barnet who were then a non-league club playing on the night in the Eastern Floodlight League. An incident involving a referee decision, irritated Greaves who used foul and abusive language in return and so the ref sent him off. Fair enough, but Greavsie refused to leave the pitch, so the ref abandoned the game! No floodlight failure this time, just a sense of humour failure.

On November 21st 1979, in a European Championship qualifier at Wembley, England played Bulgaria and the game was postponed due to heavy fog. It was played the next evening (22nd) without Kevin Keegan who had to fly back to Germany to play for Hamburg. England won 2-0 without KK, so Glen Hoddle stepped up to the mark and scored on his debut, as did Dave Watson. England's manager was Ron Greenwood and nearly 71,500 turned up. Team: Clemence, Anderson Thompson, Watson, Samson, Hoddle, Kennedy, Wilkins, Francis, Kevin Reeves?? and Woodcock.

Reeves played for Bournemouth, Norwich and mainly for Man City (scored a penalty in the FA Cup Final v Spurs in 1981), Burnley and played in two full internationals. He also made several apps for England's U18 and U21 teams and is Chief Scout at Everton.

CAPS

The idea of wearing as cap was not unusual in the 19th Century and indeed some players wore team caps during the match. N. Lane (Pa) Jackson, one of the innovators in Association Football introduced the cap for England games in 1886. The original English cap was made of white silk with a red lion.

 Chris Gunter of Reading FC, today sets a record for appearing in most Welsh international matches. He was capped 92 times when he completed Friday's European Nations defeat 1-2 against Denmark equalling Neville Southall's record.
Today's friendly against Albania will see him start in the game in Elbasan, a long journey since his debut in May 2007, when he first played against New Zealand in Wrexham. BELOW.

Kenny Dalglish holds the Scottish record of 102 caps followed by Jim Leighton on 91.
Robbie Keane for Eire 146 caps with Shay Given 134.
Pat Jennings 119 for Northern Ireland with Aaron Hughes 112 and
Peter Shilton reached 125 for England with Wayne Rooney 120.

Fara Williams of England has earned 165 caps.
On 6th January 2011 Kristine Lilly of the USA Women's soccer team achieved 354 appearances.
10 other USA women have topped 100 caps.

Globally 480 males have topped 100 caps and 275 women have too.
Some well known internationals with massive cap hauls are:
Ronaldo 154, Matthaus 150, Ramos 161, Buffon 176, Casillas 167, Ahmed Hassan of Egypt 184 holds the current record.

Also on this day in 2004, Socrates, once of Brazil with 60 caps, was player-coach for Garforth Town and he turned out in the Northern Counties East League against Tadcaster Albion in a league match. He had retired 15 years previously and was 50 years old. Apparently three bottles of Bud and 3 ciggies was his warm up and sent him on his way to the pitch with 12 minutes left and afterwards into oblivion! He died at the young age of 57.

THE FALKLANDS V ENGLAND

I was alerted to the England "C" National XI venture to the Falkland Islands recently, by one of my vast number of readers, an international match which was played on November 10th and 11th at Stanley, next to the Government House and Community school.
Paul Fairclough, the ex-Liverpool star, manages this squad which consisted of players from Hertford Town, Northwood FC, St Paul's Jersey, Bracknell Town, Hanwell Town, Reading City, Basildon Utd, Leverstock Green, Bury Town, Didcot Town, Buxton, Barking, Chalfont St Peters and Witham Town; not too many northern players here?
The squad played against the Falkland Islands team on the 10th and a Combined Services Military Police on Sunday 11th.

The squad also held coaching sessions at the Community school and at the Islands' local Junior and Infant schools at Mt Pleasant.
Chair of the FA Representative Matches, Andrew Shaw, arranged the goodwill visit to the islands and the armed forces.
The squad also attended a remembrance service at the capital's Christchurch Cathedral on the 11th.


The Falklands have had organised soccer since 1892 when the first official game was played between the British Defence Force and the Domestic Volunteers.
Stanley FC was formed in 1916, a National XI was first brought together after the Second World War and the locals eventually gathered together to form a League which today includes the C&R Construction FC, Fire FC, Teenage Mutant Ninjas Skrtles, the Green Island Falcons, Home Bankers amongst 8 clubs. The military sides tended to be too strong for the local teams and it was the West Yorkshire Rgt that featured as most successful.

In this modern day, the Falkland Islands Football League, known as the The Stanley Services LTD is not a member of CONMEBOL, the governance of South American football, due to the issues over the sovereignty of the Islands and Argentina.

The Islands, represented by Stanley FC, therefore only have The NatWest Island Games to compete in and in 2013 they earned a third place medal. In 2017 they played in Gotland against the Isle of Man, Hitra and Yns Mon (guess where they're from)-losing all three matches and playing out a final match against Alderney, which was lost 0-3 to earn 16th place.

Distance and cost limit the number of times the Islands can honour the invitation to the play in such tournaments. Those who get picked include mainly locals but four Englishman were included; Sam Toolan of Worthing Utd U18, Joshua Ennis of Sheffield Utd, Ethan Gilson-Clarke from  Cheltenham Town FC academy and Daniel Briggs-unattached. One other "foreigner" was from Bangkok!

THE BLAZERS AND THE BLUES

Feeling good about England's win over the "Blazers"? If you want a bit of history to help your celebration, have a look at this blog from a little while back. If only Sterling could kick the ball after all his hard work!
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3994718670252035536#editor/target=post;postID=4639626031828300694;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=1;src=postname
Chelsea having not played a league match before were invited to join the Football League, Second Division in 1905. At the beginning of the year the club did not exist. The Football League added a second division and expanded to 20 clubs each division, so Chelsea benefitted (as did Clapton Orient).
Five months later, H.A. 'Gus' Mears, the club's founder, started things off by having a "stadium" ready, Stamford Bridge Athletic Ground.
Players met on March 14th and signed on in April, subject to Chelsea being elected to the League. In May at the League's annual meeting Mears stated that "you cannot refuse us". Players were chosen for their reputation including the the mammoth, goalkeeper Billy Foulkes, signed from Sheffield United for £50.

Having lost their first league match at Stockport, they got things together and finished in 3rd place with 53 points from 22 wins and 9 draws in 38 matches, not enough for promotion.

On more mundane matters, on the 18th November 1905 Chelsea had to play in a Qualifying Round of the  FA Cup and this led to a fixture congestion. The had played The Grenadier Guards h 6-1, Southern Utd a 1-0 in the first two qualifying rounds.

So on the 18th, the First Team, having been pitted against Burnley in Division Two at Stamford Bridge, won 1-0. They also had to play at Crystal Palace (a Southern League side at the same time) in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup. To honour the game, Chelsea turned out a "Reserve side" that lost 1-7, the heaviest defeat inflicted on a League side by a Non-League club. 
Palace went on to win the Southern League Second Division in 1905-6.

In 1906-7 Chelsea came second, nine points ahead of the rest, and were promoted to the First Division with Nottingham Forest.

WON BY THE TOSS OF A COIN

On November 17th 1873, in an FA Cup 1st Round tie, Shropshire Wanderers met Sheffield FC at Bramall Lane Cricket Ground and drew 0-0.
In the replay at the Race Course Ground, Shrewsbury, another draw of 0-0 was played out and all the players went to The Raven Hotel for an after match dinner, which was common place in those days.
During the evening, rather than play another match, the teams decided to resolve the tie by the "toss of a coin". Up went the sovereign and........No rock, paper, scissors here.......
Sheffield FC called correctly moving on to beat the Pilgrims 1-0 in Round 2, losing in Round 3 (the quarter-final) to Clapham Rovers 2-1 on a neutral ground at Peterborough.

Here they are 14th March 1874.

The FA Cup was in its infancy first being competed for in 1871-2 with only 15 teams starting.

In 1872-3, 16 teams started with Wanderers and Queen's Park of Glasgow both given a bye.
Nine teams entered Round 2 in which three teams including Wanderers, Royal Engineers and Queen's Park had byes.
In Round 3 with six teams, Queen's Park and Wanderers were given byes....
In the semi-final Queen's Park couldn't travel from Scotland and Oxford University got a walk over. The Wanderers got a bye and went on to win the Final!

In 1873-74, 28 teams entered Round 1.
14 teams had made their way into Round 2, so an odd 7 teams found themselves in Round 3. The Swifts were lucky to be given a "bye" into the semi-finals.
Here they met the Royal Engineers losing 2-0 and Oxford University beat Clapham Rovers 1-0. In the Final Oxford Uni won 2-0.

In the 1874-5 FA Cup 1st Rd, Sheffield scratched having been drawn to play Shropshire Wanderers, who won through, eventually getting to the Semis, losing to the Old Etonians.
In 1875-6 it was Sheffield's turn to scratch against the Wanderers in Round 1 and the Wanderers went on.

The Wanderers last FA Cup tie was in 1877-8, losing to The Druids 0-1.
Sheffield FC, of course, carries on.

S & M FOR WRIGHT ON THE NIGHT

This is the almost empty stadium in Bologna where only 2,378 turned up  to watch a World Cup Qualifier on November 17th 1993 and most of those were English.

Previously in the first World Cup qualifier between the two nations on February 17th 1993 at Wembley, England won 6-0 with over 51,000 in the crowd. San Marino conceded 39 goals in 9 qualifying games.

The Three Lions, managed by Graham Taylor, played their way through qualification against Norway, Holland, Poland and Turkey. Draws against Holland and Poland and an away defeat in Norway (0-2) made Taylor's job difficult.

As a warm up to the last three qualifiers in June 1993, in a friendly tournament in Boston, England lost to the USA 2-0, drew with Brazil and lost to Germany. This match was played indoors on natural grass at the Pontiac Silverdome, Detroit in front of 62,000+. Was it good enough?

In Bologna, England needed to be 7 clear goals ahead of San Marino and the Dutch had to drop a point in Poland. Lady luck?

Ian Wright, a prolific goalscorer for Arsenal and all, had an international career of 7 years, won 33 caps with 16 starts but only scored 9 goals; four of those came against San Marino in this fated tie. Although Wright did his bit, England failed on the night and never made the USA World Cup in 1994.

The game started miraculously when AFTER 9 SECONDS, Stuart Pearce under hit a back pass to keeper David Seaman and Davide Gualtieri nipped in to put England 0-1 down! I remember it well.

It took 22 minutes for the English to reply through Paul Ince and then SM's gates opened with Wright, Ferdinand, Wright, Ince and Wright notching two more, with the seven goal going in after 90 minutes! Not enough however.
England Team:  Seaman, Dixon, Pallister, Walker, Pearce, Sinton, Platt, Ince, Ripley.
(The "away" team included Woods, Dixon, Walker, Barnes, Adams, Platt, Palmer, Dorigo, Batty, Gascoigne, Ferdinand.)
A week later manager Taylor retired. Do I not like that.
http://int.search.mywebsearch.com/search/video.jhtml?enc=2&id=XNxdm019YYgb&n=77edc526&pg=video&pn=1&ptb=308DCB58-2A13-42C4-993A-77A59B6C34C6&ptnrS=XNxdm019YYgb&qs=&searchfor=auYfp-NZ27vcf2w0TFyVCAI6ZjGxnWlcLa-fSde69Y10D9vdqAk-OqMVQB6b_e8qkWMB34dPAk4yG8kYgeWRVWzctRgsmyjRBmY0KHEOnq_ZIOJWRzrtC5e4XitNkbUk-nypdABRekKb8k9F7SSzCzFxkYT-wS_NLpmMLEnw125hI5dKAtp7XsdVQU48FPV6fyNXGUauqg1fhLSCcVpe7mJND4FvTEL8Mge6pV7bfF7eaQDpIGDWXLEwRmYafsMyFOywmeAcxTF8xOtgcTL_m5DiQZ4MX_NKvLB8VXGaHPChcUG6AJSETZ6CNxM3F1c83oNCIDi6yiEw8UBRybSHXw&si=CJeTnrb1k7ECFZMctAodh14dkA&ss=sub&st=sb&tpr=sbt

ENGLAND SAY THANKS WITH THE YANKS TO WAYNE

The time has come for Wayne to say goodbye, so let's just have a few words about England playing the the Americans, 10 times so far.
The record is England won 7 and Drawn 1. USA have won twice, including the embarrassing World Cup defeat in 1950 0-1(Yanks beat the Planks??) and the not quite so embarrassing defeat 0-2 in 1993, in the US Cup (a tournament run in the States for a few visiting countries).
The other games have been played between the two in:
1953 England won 6-3 away, 1959 8-1 a win in America, 1964 an England win 10-0 away, 1965 5-0 to England away, 1994 a 2-0 win at home, 2005 a 2-1 win away, 2008 a home win 2-0 and 2010 a draw 1-1 in the World Cup, the Yanks being managed by Bob Bradley.
Here's one I did earlier:-
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3994718670252035536#editor/target=post;postID=939734974993885036;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=16;src=postname
We wish Wayne the best of luck and hope he enjoys the rest of his active life.
Best of luck too to the crowd who may or may not have been warned that spectators can only carry in bags no larger than a piece of A4 paper! I wonder how many are prepared for that! Was it announced when tickets were bought?

Today I became aware of David Squires, a cartoonist with the Guardian. who has produced many illustrated books. He began with a work in the Swindon Town's fanzine "The69er". He has also designed club mascots
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBtXsT-Go4k
This was published in 2016 and he started working for the Guardian in 2017, he is now based in Sydney and produces a weekly strip for the paper.

ROCK,PAPER,SCISSORS

As the FA appoints Susanna Dinnage to the prestigious post of  Chief Executive to the Premier League, a lowly referee was suspended for 21 days by the FA for forgetting his coin for the "toss up".
Instead he used his initiative and got the captains to play "rock, paper, scissors"! I suppose he could have done the blade of grass thing but he had a bit of fun and the match got underway.

Described as "a moment of madness", the FA's Women's refereeing manageress, Joanna Simpson condemned David McNamara's act prior to a televised Women's Super League match between Manchester City and Reading in October.
The fact that this was on TV meant that the referee knew he was pushed for time and couldn`t go back to the changing rooms, but this buttered no parsnips with the "blazers" who said "The Laws of the Game state that you toss a coin".
Previously, recent decisions by referees in the Women's game have been regarded as unprofessional and repeatedly let down by the standard of officiating, hence the grumpiness of the decision makers.
Wendy Toms was the first woman to referee a senior League match in England, when she took charge of a Conference league game between Woking and telford United on 31st August 1996.
On October 26th 1996, Linda Bailey (no relative), Karen Ford and Anne Smith became the first all three female officials for an FA affiliated match when they took charge of Broomfield Utd v Kent University in the Kent County League.
As Terry Venables said "Some people will be pro the referee and certain people will be for him, but you are always going to have that in football."
In 1998 the term "linesman" was replaced by "referee's assistant" to reflect, better, the role of officials and not to be non-gender specific.

NOT THE 13TH OF NOVEMBER NEWS

I was going to write about things that happened on the 13th of November and got well involved reading a reliable research source, got seriously excited and collected some notes. So here I go, writing about the 14th...yes misread the date!

Don't care!! because this has a nice coincidence.
On this day in 1934, the English national team met the Italians at Highbury in a game that soon became known as the "Battle of Highbury", refereed by Otto Olsson of Sweden. Over 56,000 watched the match.
This match was played against Italy, already the World Cup winners in 1934. Mussolini had offered each of his players £150 (approx £6000) and an Alfa Romeo to win this game, very much a political statement as Europe wobbled politically.
The English FA had left FIFA and did not play in the tournament, so there was a feeling that Italy had won by default, as England was the best ranked side at the time.

Stanley Matthews was playing his second game and the team was regarded as "inexperienced" with no player holding more than 10 caps.
The national team included 7 Arsenal players, the "go to team" of the time, so the following started:
Bastin, Copping, Bowden, Drake, Hapgood, Male, Moss. This was and is a record. England won 3-2. Brook scored in 8 and 10 minutes and Dake after 12. The Italians then rallied and things got a bit tense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ITlcbqGgag

The first match between the two countries was in May 1933 in Rome which ended 1-1. Cliff Bastin of Arsenal scored.

28 March 2001, the following Manchester United players represented England against Albania, Gary Neville, Butt, Cole, Beckham, Scholes and subs were Wes Brown and Sheringham.

On 19th June 2014 Liverpool provided 6 players, the most in a major tournament against Uruguay.

In 1973 on the 14th of November, Bobby Moore played for England for the last time and this was his 108th cap. England lost 0-1 at Wembley. Alf Ramsey was manager and Fabio Capello scored in the 89 minute. Alongside Fabio were Chinaglia, Riva, Riviera and Dino Zoff plus a few other tasty Italians. England had the following in their ranks:
Shilton, Moore, McFarland, Hughes, Madeley, Bell, Currie, Peters, Channon, Bell and Osgood.

MOST GOALS BY ONE PERSON IN A MATCH

On this day:

In 1921 Billy Walker of Aston Villa scored 3 consecutive penalties in a Division 3 North Football League match against Bradford City.  He scored 214 goals in 478 apps for Villa and 9 goals for England in 18 caps. Might be regarded as the best ever to play for Villa, winning an FA Cup medal in 1920 and a runner up in 1924. He went on into management at Sheffield Wed, Chelmsford!! and Nottingham Forest.
Managing Wednesday before the war he won the FA Cup with them in 1935 and in 1959 he took Forest to Wembley winning the Cup after the war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FF7ll0UiPo  1959 Cup win

Billy was the only manager to have done that double (ie before and after the win victories in the FA Cup Final).
He was also the first Englishman to score a goal at the brand new Wembley against Scotland on April 12th 1924.
(I'm wondering about the 1923 FA Cup Final played for the first time at Wembley- when David Jack (an Englishman) and JR Smith (a Scot) scored for Bolton in the first cup final?)

On this same day in 1927 Charlie Moore of Bradford City scored 5 against Nelson (yes they were in the Football League Third North).
In 1932 Duncan M'Crae scored 6 in St Mirren's defeat of Cowdenbeath in the Scottish First Division. He was a bit of a legend, scoring 224 goals in 319 league and cup games, winning an array of trophies for his club and a few Scottish caps.
In 1938 Beaumont Asquith playing for Barnsley.....seriously! notched 5 out of 7 against Darlington also in the Third Division North.

Top Premier League individual goalscorers in one game include:
Andy Cole 5 for Man U v Ipswich in a 9-0 defeat in March 1995
Alan Shearer 5 for Newcastle v Sheff Wed 8-0 September 1999
Jermain Defoe 5 for Spurs v Wigan 9-1 22/11/09
Dimitar Berbatov Man U v Blackburn Rovers 7-1 27/11/10
Sergio Aguero City v Newcastle 6-1 3/10/15
and 22 players have scored 4 in one PL match....worth trying to name them?

Other top individual scorers:
Joe Payne 10 Luton Town v Bristol Rovers 12-0 13/4/11936
Robert Bell 9 Tranmere Rovers v Oldham Athletic 13-4 on Boxing Day 1935
Ted Drake 7 Arsenal v Villa 7-1 14/12/1935

In the Second Division Tommy Brigg scored 7 for Blackburn Rovers v Bristol Rovers in an 8-3 win 5/2/55
Neville Coleman 7 for Stoke City v Lincoln City 8-0 23/2/57

A DAY FOR REFLECTION

You think the FA have issues with the Wayne Rooney Charity Match at Wembley coming up this week, then give some thought to the game England played against Scotland in  a World Cup Qualifier in 2016. Yes, you remember that on Armistice Day the teams wore poppies on their armbands, held a minute silence inside Wembley, played The Last Post, handed out T-shirts with poppies emblazoned and showed "war" images on the stadium's screens. Well, FIFA stepped up to the mark and fined the FA £35,000 for displaying political and religious symbols at one "of their matches".
England won 3-0, so what the hell?

On the 11 November in 2006, James Cotterill a Barrow Town defender played against Bristol Rovers in an FA Cup First Round tie, at Holker Street and in the 60th minute got fed up with Sean Rigg, an opposition attacker, and slugged him with a punch that broke his jaw bone in two places. The ref missed this but the Match of the Day cameras filming did not and later showed the incident which led to a criminal prosecution for grievous bodily harm that got James four months imprisonment. This was the first event of this kind in recent history to result in imprisonment!

And on the World War issue, I read recently that Blackpool FC played the 1914-15 season against the background of the 1st WW and in August 1914 a large number of refugees from Belgium arrived in the town. As a gesture of support the club adopted the Belgian flag colours-red, black, yellow. They wore this for a year only. In 1923-4, a club director, Albert Hargreaves (you couldn't make this up), was an international referee and he did a game between the Netherlands and Belgium. So impressed was he with the Dutch "orange" shirts he persuaded his fellow directors to adopt the new colour for the Seasiders. Actually the club never referred to the colour as orange-it was always tangerine and having lapsed from this colour for a few years in 1938-9, they went back to tangerine.

If you haven't see the "Brothers in Football" TV programme shown on BT Sport last night, it's about the Corinthian Casuals, then somehow access it! and remember the brilliant section on the BBC Website about the First World War-full of wonderful detail about the way war was influenced by and itself influenced football.
Just a thought, how many EFL clubs wear "orange".

SUPERCLASICO

 It is the Copa Libertadores Final this weekend, the Superclasico. This is the finale to the CONMEBOL, the Latin American competition run since 1960. The competition represents a tribute to the Spanish and Portugueses "Liberators", first played as the Copa Rio de Plata (Argentina v Uruguay) in the 1930s.
The "picados" was a slang word for a kickabout played on the land surrounding the River Plate, clearly the heart of Argentina. In Brazil it was "peladas" and on the Pacific Coast, "pinchagas".
The massive resources available in South America attracted European development and in Argentina beef, hide and wool encouraged industries to develop along the river estuary and from 1863 the railways were built to enable transport from the interior. Inevitably the businesses needed banks and Europeans rubbed their hands together eagerly.
In 1880 there were 40,000 Britons in Buenos Aires. The population  needed services such as shops, schools and so on and in the towns, Social Clubs were established by the immigrants. At this time there were  athletic competitions, games of cricket, tennis and polo organised by the wealthy and educated. Football was to follow.

In 1867 the editor of the English newspaper "The Standard" received a copy of the FA Laws set in London in 1863. Thomas Hogg of the Buenos Aires Cricket Club decided to organise a match set by those rules in June 1867.The Colorados (red caps) lost to the Blancos (white caps) 0-4.
In the 1880s English schools in the British community adopted the game mainly under the control of British teachers, especially a Scottish master Alexander Watson Hutton who formed St Andrew's High School in the capital.
Much the same history ran in Brazil and Uruguay around the same time.
 Boca Juniors in 1906. Formed originally by Greek and Italian students living in the La Boca region of the capital.


Club Atletico River Plate based in the Belgrano district in Buenos Aires was founded in 1901, with an English influence.


River Plate 1908.
The Copa Final will be played over two legs on the 10th and 24th November. The first leg is played at the Boca La Bombonera and the second at the Monumento de Nunez. It is not often that the two teams have met and when they do it is "carnage" on and off the field. The first edition of the Copa began in 1960 with Penarol of Paraguay winning the first final. 24 Argentinian clubs have won the final, 10 from Brazil. Boca have won 6 titles (last in 2007) and River Plate 3 (last in 2015).

PENALISE RAHEEM? THANK MCCRUM

From goalkeepers yesterday, it is reckoned that the custodian will have 0.4 seconds to read and then reach for a penalty kick, where ever it is placed. The ball will travel at around 70 mph from 12 yards, so saving the shot may be regarded as luck or game theory may be employed. This assumes that the goalie stays on his line of course.Approximately 72% of penalties are scored and the team that takes the first penalty wins in a penalty shoot out 60% wins, hence the FIFA's experimentation with ABBA system.

Kicks taken to the high corners are more successful that other spots. Ignacios Palacios-Huerta, an Economist, has studied this and produced a definitive report on penalty taking and success. Ben Lyttleton's "Twelve Yards-The Art and Psychology of the Penalty Kick" is on the book shelves now.

Well, Manchester City's Gabriel Jesus, scored the controversial penalty against Andriy Pyator from Shakhtor Donetsk last night.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/741146/Raheem-Sterling-penalty-pictures-Man-City-star-wins-after-kicking-the-GROUND
This has involved much debate on social media.

In 1890, the Milford Everton goalkeeper, William McCrum, living in County Armagh, persuaded the Irish FA to propose a "penalty" law. The idea was turned down initially because a serious infringement of the already established laws within 12 yards of the goal would suggest ungentlemanly conduct and this "just doesn't happen". Despite this fame, McCrum died penniless.

In February 1891 Notts County led Stoke City 1-0 in the final seconds of the FA Cup quarter-final. Outfield player Hendry of Notts County handled a Stoke shot destined for goal, with his keeper beaten. Stoke were awarded an indirect free kick, which was the punishment at that time and the ball was scrambled away.
County won 1-0 and reached the final, losing to Blackburn Rovers 1-3. The following season the English FA introduced the new law.

The famous amateurs, The Corinthians, announced that the inclusion of the penalty law assumed that players would be likely to commit unsportsmanlike behaviour. For many years Corinthian goalkeepers would stand to one side of the goal if a penalty was awarded, stating that if a penalty was the referee's decision then one of their players must have been unsporting and therefore the team deserved to concede a goal.
In 1937 the FA inserted a part into the law that insisted that the goalie should stand between the posts.

So this brings me to Raheem and Manchester City, who were just leading in their European Champions' League match last night. Sterling did not get tripped up by a Shakhtor defender and he did not claim a penalty although the referee and his four officials, including the two Harry Potters with their wands, deemed Sterling had been unlawfully fouled. I wonder what his team mates and coaching staff, manager, owners and crowd would have thought if he (or one of his colleagues) had deliberately missed the penalty!

By the way, the City penalty taker, Jesus, stuttered in his run up, surely against the law which states: The penalty taker must approach the ball in a single fluid movement. (IFAB 1981)
RIP William McCrum, his family grave.

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE, THERE'S A GOALKEEPER

Simon Armitage has written a well known poem about a goalkeeper. Not the Premier League or other professional custodian that we see theatrically conducting his defence and sometimes the whole team. It's about a man who stands out as different from the rest by his jersey, who sometimes leading the home crowd or agitates the opposition mob from his safe area....the six yard box. He can't be touched there you know. Hmmm!

So Simon Armitage was born in 1963 in Huddersfield and lived his early years in nearby Marsden.
He went to Colne Valley High School and studied Geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic (hence his broad education), did post graduate work at Manchester Uni earning an MS in social work and lectured at Leeds University, Iowa and Manchester Met.
He became Professor of Poetry at Sheffield and then at Leeds.

He wrote this football poem and it has an audio link too. I'm afraid it has a couple of naughty words in it, but ignoring these, every young footballer should enjoy the vivid description in the stanzas and maybe recognise that this standard of goalie may be somebody that their dad or grandfather might have come across from their past. Anyone recognise this keeper! Might be an inspiration for an English project.
https://fromwhereyouare-en.systime.dk/index.php?id=190

Armitage lives in the Holme Valley and supports "Town", making references to the club in his book "All Points North". He is also lead singer of the "Scaremongers" and is well decorated, including a CBE.
https://www.simonarmitage.com/the-scaremongers/

Arsene Wenger used to smoke in the dug out...he blamed stress. Arsene grew up in his family owned bar in Duttlenheim called the Croix d'Or, so he lived amongst smokers. Wenger also worked as a cigarette salesman before his fame in football.
His loyal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was fined £20,000 for lighting up in the dressing room! There are many other moments, particularly in the non-league clubs.

Of course smoking has played an important part is Football History. Here is a link that might prove useful in a school project or quiz!
https://spartacus-educational.com/Ftobacco.htm

FOLLOW THE BALL

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/the_last_pass
This wonderful link from the BBC covers a huge amount of First World War history. The Footballers' Battalion, Walter Tull, The Corinthians, the Christmas Truce and Jimmy Seed from Sunderland is a footballing case study, following his life before and during the Great War.

It is a thorough piece and really needs a read. Stick with it because it covers a very important period in the history of the game and of course Britain.

THE CORINTHIANS, INVINCIBLES AND FILM STARS

I nearly did an article on amputee football, then I got excited by "Rooney's Law", you know the one that involves England FA, Gareth Southgate and Wayne's Charity BUT as the Daily Telegraph unravelled this morning, I found myself locked on to the Sports section and Alan Tyers' article on the "Corinthian Spirit". Anybody who knows anything about football history will know all about the Corinthians, whether the English club, the Corinthian Casuals, or the Brazilian club, Corinthians.
The article warns us of the upcoming documentary on BT Sports, Saturday 9pm. Many don't subscribe to BT but you really should get hold of the film. The link is with the First World War, in which many Corinthian footballers joined in.

One member of the English Corinthians club was Charles Aubrey Smith, one of three polymaths (people of much learning); the other two were C.B.Fry and Max Woosnam. If you know nothing of these two then look them up.

Charles Aubrey Smith was one of the Old Carthusians team that met Preston North End in the FA Cup Quarter-final Round in 1887. North End were at the time the country's most successful team, later being Double winners in 1888-9, when they won the First Division without losing a game and won the cup without conceding a goal.

Smith was born in Brighton in July 1863 and he was a boy at the London Charterhouse, before St John's College, Cambridge. He played cricket for the university and then Sussex CCC, captaining the first England XI to play in South Africa in 1888-9. As a left winger he gave the "Invincibles" a fright at the Kennington Oval but it was to no avail as the professionals won the tie after extra time 2-1. In the OC team that day were the well known AM and PM Walters as "backs", Charles Wreford Brown, who first used the word "Soccer" in goal and several other English internationals, all true amateurs.
It was the last serious attempt at the FA Cup by a truly amateur club. Preston met West Bromwich Albion next who beat them in the semi-final.

Aubrey Smith became a star of film appearing in "A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer All Talking Picture". He appeared in 76 films including "Tarzan and Ape Man", "Lives of a Bengal Lancer", Prisoner of Zenda" and "Sixty Glorious Years".
He brought cricket to Hollywood and founded a Club there. In 1938 he was awarded the CBE and was Knighted in 1944.
Would you like to meet him on a dark night?

BURYING THE COFFIN OF RELEGATION

This weekend had seen another famous name mentioned on the global media, Dave Whelan! As chairman of Wigan Athletic, he and his family have seen some heady days with the Lancashire club. Dave played for Blackburn Rovers and Crewe in the 1960s and broke his leg in the 1960 FA Cup Final when Wolves ran out winners 3-0 playing against 10 men-no subs in those days.

Not one of the historic clubs (being founded only in 1932), Wigan, playing in red and white by the way, joined local leagues, eg the Cheshire County League, playing their first official game v Port Vale Reserves in August 1932, climbing to the the National Premier League. The club was successful in the NPL and applied for election to the Football League and after suffering rejections 34 times, joining the Football League from 1978!

The club was taken over in 1995 by the Whelan family and since then the Latics' fans have experienced many good times, including life at the very top.
and rising to the top and the Premier League in 2005 through to 2013. The club won the FA Cup in 2013 beating Manchester City 1-0 with a goal from Ben Watson

Whelan's grandson is standing down as club owner with a £22 million take over from Hong Kong based International Enterprise Corporation.

This weekend, from a mid-table position, Wigan hosted a "rampant" Leeds United and unfortunately could not get victory for the Whelans, losing 1-2.

Bradford born, Dave Whelan has hosted soccer and Rugby League at the DW Stadium. His "spare" money has come from his success in various businesses, including JJB Sports and later DW Sports, hence the name of the stadium.

AND FINALLY Burying the Coffin of relegation appears to be a tradition held in Blackburn and Preston. When the local league club, firstly Blackburn Rovers was relegated in 1948, a coffin full of vegetables (meant to the be players) was carried to the local Trades Hall cellar in Bamber Bridge and left there "until the raising". These days a "dummy" called Chucky is in the coffin!