ACHIEVE BY UNITY

Here are local ball boys, hired by Yeovil Town for their National League match against Bromley at Huish Park, on Saturday. Usually it's a local junior club (or the club's juniors) that has the privilege of being ball boys/girls, a wonderful moment in the young persons' life.

The club motto is "Achieve by Unity" and the lads have made the news and followed that motto when they were all "sent off" with a few minutes to go and showed 8 red cards by referee Aaron Jackson, when he decided that they were obstructing the game by wasting time getting the ball back. One boy delayed handling the ball to an opponent and then a mate copied him! The ref stepped in!
This was put on Twitter immediately by a supporter and it got 20,000 hits! The ref had to retrieve the ball himself.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-pty-pty_extension&hsimp=yhs-pty_extension&hspart=pty&p=Yeovil+ball+boys#id=1&vid=3e2b1491ab7645e07a598a7775d7ca63&action=click

The Glovers were leading 3-1 with not long to go, when the mass sending off happened. Bromley goalkeeper, Mark Cussins, was carried off with an injury, delaying the game for 18 minutes, so what with the usual added time and the ball boys mucking about the ref was clearly going to miss his train home. he got grumpy. BBC Somerset reporter Chris Spittles kept local listeners well informed.
Founded in 1895 as Yeovil Casuals, the club nickname is the Glovers following the local industry, centred on the town.
In the late 1940s the club merged with local Petters United and hence the club name changed to Yeovil Town in 1946-7. They now played in the National League being relegated  from League 2 last season. Prior to that, they were in the Championship in 2013-14, League 1 in 2005-6 and Division 3 in 2003-4.

THISTLES

It was the Thistle Derby yesterday in Scotland and it went past without barely a murmur. The use of the word Thistle is painfully obvious I hope.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle lost to Partick Thistle 1-3. 2469 people witnessed this Scottish Championship (2nd tier)clash between Caley, 3rd in the division, and The Jags, 2nd to bottom.
Next week Thistle take on Queen of the South who are one point above them.
Caley take on Ayr Utd who sit one place above them in second place, but 5 points better off.

Partick Thistle are a Glasgow based club in Maryhill and they have not been in Partick since 1908. They played in Partick prior to this from their founding in 1876. They joined the Scottish Football Alliance (i.e. league football) in 1891.
Former players include Alan Hansen, Mo Johnston, Alan Rough and Bertie Auld. Famous supporters are Robert Carlyle, David Hasselhoff and Jeremy Corbyn! Don't ask.
Their mascot, Kingsley, was designed by Turner Prize nominated David Shrigley as part of a sponsor deal with a Californian company investment firm, Kingsford Capital Management.
He'll frighten the life out of your children.
PTFC also supports Thistle Weir Ladies FC since 2014, now known as PT Women's FC and an academy.
They also have 9 players out on loan to Fort William FC.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle is best known for The Sun news report when they beat Celtic in the Cup which read: "Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic are Atrocious". One of its mascots is Lionel Nessi, after the Loch Ness monster and Messi of course.



Fondly known as Caley Thistle or Caley Jags, the club formed when the Caledonian FC and Inverness Thistle merged in 1994.
Clachnacuddin FC was another "Highland" club, having been part of the three clubs to form the North of Scotland FA in 1888, that nearly joined in, but remained independent, .
Ross County is another club that may be considered "local rivals".
In 1996 ICTFC moved into the new Tulloch Caledonian Stadium.

In 2009 was managed by Terry Butcher! The present squad includes a lot of Scots, of course, and a lad from Eire, but also a Bulgarian, a Canadian and a Brazilian.

BIRD CRESTS

Seagulls line up in a 1-4-6 system. Seagulls got a mention today on radio and of course it is the nickname for Brighton and Hove Albion FC, an obvious choice. Seagulls are not the world's most loved birds, chip stealing, picnic bombing, crapping divers, caw caw caw.

Yes I am going slightly bonkers but then it is the weather. One of our junior games has already been postponed through "pitch is buggered!".

There are no seagulls. Certainly plenty of seagull like birds exist but they are sea birds of the Laridae family and mostly related to terns, auks, skimmers and so on. So Brighton's seagulls are made from a myth. Nevertheless the seagulls make a nice shape for a badge and form the base of their website
www.seagulls.co.uk
No club has its nickname as its website. Originally known as the Dolphins, the club's nickname changed to Seagulls in 1977 and "changed direction" on the badge in 2011. The chant "seagulls, seagulls" challenges local derby rivals, Crystal Palace's "Eagles".


Robins "perch up" quite a bit; Wrexham AFC (once a robin, but changed to Red Wrex the Dragon-more Welsh!), Bristol City,

Swindon Town

and Cheltenham Town (see badge  below) who change their club colours from ruby red to red and white, more Robin like and therefore adopted the nickname.


AFC Walsall, now known as the Sadlers due to the local " leather industry", were known as the Walsall Town Swifts until the 1890s when they lost the words "Town Swifts".

Other birds? Can you name the clubs?
Bantams, Bluebirds, Canaries, Eagles (also Armagh City!), Gulls, Magpies, Owls, Peacocks, Swans, Throstles (also a Song Thrush).

Finally, local Penistone Chruch FC, sports Martlets on it's badge; the Martlet, a small martin or swallow like bird featured in heraldry and myth. Note the county arms of Sussex.

The French word for a similar bird is "merlette" and is part of the coat of arms for Arundel Castle, in Sussex, originally named "Hirondelle" after its early French connection.
Dundalk FC carries the martlets too, dating from the town's medieval history. Martlets also may be found on crests at Worcester College Oxford, Pembroke Coll, Cambridge, Bromsgrove School and Mill Hill School, to name a few.

LIGHTNING STRIKES

Driving home from Hounslow this afternoon/evening, yes it took a long time, the weather changed considerably and big clouds developed over the Pennines. The Radio was covering various weather features, one of which was about lightning-the meteorological phenomenon. I have written about this before.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/lightning-strikes-ghost.html
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-ghost-of-n17.html

The programme was about chances of being struck by a lightning bolt....imagine! It's men who tend to get hit more, mainly because they are more likely to take risks.....or be silly?
Don't stand under a tree, near a pylon, by a flagpost, near water, don't go fishing or swim. Don't be too tall and if you happen to be on a huge flat field in the Mid-West of the USA and a storm starts, well curl up in a ball and wait for the storm to pass!

It can be distessing....................
The Moroka Swallows and Jomo Cosmos in South Africa suffered!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNJRPOltifI

On February 25th 1967, Highgate United FC from the West Midlands league were playing Enfield Town from the Isthmian League in an FA Amateur Cup quarter-final. The game was interrupted by a lightning strike in the 28th minute, with Enfield leading 1-0. All players felt the strike but the major casualty was Tony Allden, who died,as a result at the young age of 23. A crowd of around 3,000 witnessed this and the game was abandoned, of course.

Tony is fourth from left back row, the big lad.

The rearranged game was held at Aston Villa with a crowd of more than 30,000 attending, the receipts going to the player's "charity". A few minutes to remember.....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-39081175

WEMBLEY FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW-win friends at a party.

The theme is still Wembley and some firsts.
You know that Wembley was first used officially for an FA Cup Final on April 28th 1923. Bolton Wanderers played West Ham United.The first player to score in an FA Cup Final was David Jack of the Trotters in his team's 2-0 victory over the Hammers. This was known as "The White Horse Final" a title that you should now about. This is an historic news reel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4NqYsFTr1Q
The first Final to be televised was in 1937 when Sunderland played Preston  North End. The Black Cats won 3-1. The Final was contested in May for the first time and Preston were 1-0 ahead, only to lose. The very famous Raich Carter scored for Sunderland.

Yugoslavia's Boris Stankovic was the first player to be sent off at Wembley when he received his marching orders against Sweden in the 1948 Olympic Games. His team lost 1-3.
On 25th November 1953, the Mighty Magyars from Hungary became the first non-British team to defeat England at Wembley; it was a resounding 6-3 embarrassment and a brillaint performance by Ferenc Puskas, the "Galloping Magyar".
Bobby Johnstone of Manchester City became the first player to score in successive FA Cup Finals when he scored against Newcastle United in 1955 and Birmingham City in 1956.

Nottingham Forest became the first club to reach two Wembley Finals in the same season when they played in the Football League Cup beating Luton Town 3-1and the Simod Cup (Full members Cup) beating Everton 4-3 in 1989.
In 1993 Arsenal became the first team to win and FA Cup Final (15th May and 20th- 1-1 and then 2-1) and a Football League Cup Final 18th April 2-1), on both occasions beating Sheffield Wednesday. Obviously this was the first time two clubs had met in\ major domestic finals in the same season.
The first Wembley Final to be decided by a "Golden Goal" was in the 1995 Auto Windscreens Shield Final when Paul Tait scored in the 103rd minute for Wallsall v Brighton in May 1996.
When John Barnes came on as a sub for Newcastle Utd in the 1998 FA Cup Final defeat by Arsenal, he became the first player to lose three Wembley FA Cup Finals with three different clubs; Watford in 1984 and Liverpool in 1988 and 1996. Bad omen?? After that he played briefly at Charlton and Celtic.

NEW WEMBLEY CONNECTED BY EE.

https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/05/multiple-use-of-wembley.html

The good news today is that Wembley (or the England FA) will host the Champions' League Final in 2023, to mark the centenary of the great Stadium's foundation. So in preparation:
The new Wembley 2007.
It has 2618 toilets.
The circumference around the outside of the stadium of exactly 1 km.
The cross section of the arch is longer than the length of a cross-channel Eurostar train.
The pitch dimension is 115 x 75 yards.
The roof height is 52 metres and the arch 133m high-its span is 315m, the longest single span arch in the World.

It is of course the revamped Wembley that will host the big game, but its the same footprint and many feet have trod the hallowed turf of the old stadium-including my size 7s, but that's another story at the old stadium. Privilege!
.


The old Wembley has held the following European Cup Finals:
1962-3 Milan v Benfica 2-1.
1967-8 Man U and Best beat Benfica 4-1.
1970-1 Ajax v Panathiniakos 2-0.
1977-8 Liverpool v Club Brugge 1-0.
1991-2 Barcelona beat Sampdoria 1-0.
The stadium was demolished in 2003 and refurbished.
Old Trafford hosted the 2002-3 Champions League Final between Milan and Juventus which was drawn 0-0 aet and won by Milan on pens.
The new Wembley is used from 2007.
2010-11 Barcelona overwhelmed Man U 3-1
2012-13 The last European Champions League Final at Wembley was between two GERMAN clubs! Bayern Munich beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1.
I do wonder why UEFA didn't use common sense and scrap tradition, changing the venue to somewhere in Germany for this "local derby". All those air miles and plastic!

Wembley will stage the Euro 2020 semi-finals and Finals.

Future Champions League Final venues are at:
2020: The Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul, where Liverpool and AC Milan played out an important finale in 2005.
2021: the Krestovsky, St Petersburg where Zenit play, in 2021 (the only previous Russian venue was in 2008 when Manchester Utd played Chelsea (another silly venue) at the Luzhniki in Moscow) and
in 2022: at the Alliance Arena Munic, where Chelsea once played Bayern Munich.
The city hosted the first final of the "rebranded" Champions League competition in 1993, when Marseille played AC Milan at the Olympiastadion, Munich.   

Seville has been given the Europa League Final and Belfast the Europa Super Cup in 2021.

Hampden park hosted the wonderful 1959-60 Final between Real Madrid 7 v Eintrach Frankfurt 7-3. I watched it "live" on black and white TV.
Another Hampden Final was Real Madrid v Bayern Leverkausen 2-1 in 2001-2.

The old stadium history:
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-pty-pty_extension&hsimp=yhs-pty_extension&hspart=pty&p=The+old+Wembley+stadium#id=1&vid=983816eaab2c675a2444dc65820c29e5&action=click

First match at the new stadium: Geoff Thomas Foundation Charity XI v Wembley Sponsors All Stars. Mark Bright and Simon Jordan (CP chair etc) scored in a 2-0 win for GT XI. 17/3/07
First serious game: England U21 v Italy U21
First very serious game: FA Trophy Final: Stevenage Borough v Kidderminster Harriers 21/5.07

SCUM v SKATES

Tonight there is a South Coast derby.

My first venture to a professional ground was to Fratton Park in the late 1950s when England international, Jimmy Dickinson, was captain, a formidable centre-half (those were the days of the 1-2-3-5 line up). My purpose for visiting Pompey was to see Stanley Matthews play. He was my hero and at the young age of single figures, I wanted to see the maestro in the flesh, but he rarely travelled south of London for any matches. I never saw him play, though I did meet him twice later.

Portsmouth FC, from Hampshire, was my "local" side, founded in 1898. As a Sussex lad, Brighton and Hove Albion FC was nearer to my village, but there was no direct train link. A number 22 Southdown bus might have got me somewhere near the Goldstone Ground, but I was taken to Portsmouth on the train from home town Pulborough by local lads and we passed by Fratton, alighting the train there in the shadow of the floodlights.
Pompey are known locally as the Skates, a derisive term for "matelots" or the Royal Naval sailors.

Southampton FC, founded in 1885, was in another "country" as far as I was concerned, so I had no opportunity to venture to The Dell, until adulthood. I took my son to see Liverpool play there. The Saints are known by their neighbours, as the Scum(Southampton City Union Members), the dock workers who crossed picket lines in times of union issues.
The two ports dealt with very different "cargo"!

Watching the Band of the Royal Marines march around the Fratton Park pitch in the 1950s, entertaining the crowd, was enough for me and the records show that Pompey and the Saints never played each other between 1927 and 1960, so I wouldn't have got to see them lock horns in my childhood.

The first time the two came together in a Solent Derby, only 19 miles apart, was on April 14th 1900 at Fratton Park and the home team won 2-0. They met again in the return game two days later; same result.
There was an FA Cup tie between the two in January 1906, Southampton winning 5-1.

The two clubs played in the Southern League (which was not the Football League) until 1920 when they found themselves in the newly formed Football League Third Division South; Portsmouth winning both games 2-0.
Between 1924 and 1976 there were matches in Division 2.  In a short burst from 1987 through till 1988 there were League One matches and a short venture into the Premier League in 2003-5. In 2011-12 they met in the League Championship.
The only other League Cup meeting was on 2nd December 2003 when Southampton won 2-0.
They have met in the FA Cup 5 times.
Overall Pompey have won 21, Drawn 15 with the Saints and lost 34.
Scoring 113 for and conceding 91 goals.
Still this matters little in a full blooded cup tie.

MONKEY HANGERS

Dover to Hartlepool must be, just about, the longest trip for the two clubs in the National League. Torquay or Yeovil might challenge this geographical fact. I am not going to Google maps to test the assertion.

If I found that the statement was wrong then I might not have story. The Non-League Paper and TalkSport today have reported the rascist abuse dealt out to Dover Athletic's Inih Effiong, who scored a penalty for the visitors after 37 minutes, in what proved to be a lively match.

Hartlepool United lie 14th in National League and Dover 5th. 3329 attended this match at Hartlepool's ground and a few spoilt the day, Steven Rigg bundled home a second goal for The Whites in the 84th minute and sealed the result for the visitors.

The abuse from part of the Hartlepool crowd was heard by both teams and there was a "eyeball" confrontation which eventually led to an 8 minute delay in the game. What did the referee do? What could he? What did the stewards do? What was the outcome? Actually, so far nothing.

Dover manager, Andy Hessenthaler, has a long history in football and hopes that the home officials will come down heavily on the abusers. Craig Hignett, Hartlepool's boss, also an experienced player, coach and manager, said it had been a sad day for football.
The players threatened to walk off but what would that solve??

Many home supporters rallied round all the players at the time, so these fans must be able to expose the offender or offenders.

The referee, Joseph Johnson, had an interesting day and it is likely that some of the fans' and indeed the player's behavior may have been sparked by his unpopular decisions. Effiong's penalty was disputed which led to a Pools' red card and further "speaking out of turn" led to another sending off. Pools ended with 9 men and the ref failed to give Pools a penalty when Toure was "felled" in the area, Pools hit the woodwork in the second half and had three cleared "off the line".

Following on from the issue of rascist abuse (and others recently in football), Hartlepool United's nickname is the Monkey Hangers.

During the Napoleonic War, a French warship was found wrecked off the Hartlepool coast and when it was boarded by the locals, there were no Frenchmen alive apart from one individual that the locals assumed to be an French sailor. The individual was wearing a French naval uniform and didn't speak English, so he must have been a Frenchman. It was the ship's pet monkey, a mascot on the boat. The poor beast was taken ashore and because it didn't speak English, it couldn't defend itself and so was found guilty and hung as a French spy. The club  and town now have a team mascot called "H'Angus" and there are also various children's books, adult novels, songs and films with the Hartlepool monkey as the central theme.

THE LADIES FA CUP

I have been watching Hepworth United FC make history (for the club) this afternoon as our Ladies Section played a Women's FA Cup Tie, the first time the club has been involved in any FA Cup games.
Our senior men are not quite far enough up the pyramid to be involved in FA Vase football, let alone Trophy or Cup. But with the progress the club has made in a few years, perhaps the FA Cup is not too far a dream. All credit to the ladies and their coaches.

The Ladies had been drawn into the First Qualifying Round where they drew Blackburn Community Sports' Club LFC, a squad that has obviously been around the "block" and they gave a professional performance in the first half taking 6 goals from our lasses. The Blackburn team was worth it, although some disastrous edge of penalty area mishaps did give away a couple of easy goals.

In the second half our girls did much better and scored a single reply. We didn't think that the tie was ever going to be turned round but they gave a good account of the themselves down the slope!

Previously, the first FA Cup Women's "Extra Preliminary Round" was played on August 18th, where amongst 10 ties, today's opponents from Blackburn put 6 past West Kirkby LFC.

In this same round I noticed a match between Torquay Utd LFC v RNAS Culdrose LFC,
Godalming Town LFC (my Surrey local club) losing 1-2 to Eastbourne Town LFC,
QPR Girls Development beat Wargrave LFC 11-0 and
Sutton United LFC lost 0-1 to Islington Borough LFC.

The next Preliminary round was nation wide. 98 ties were played around the weekend of September 1st.
The First Qualifying Round has 45 ties. The next round is on October 6th and the Final on May 9th 2020.
So no further progress for our girls in this prestigious tournament, but wonderful to be considered as part of this national event.

The Women's FA Cup was competed for in 1970-1 and it was Southampton Ladies who won the cup 8 times through to 1981. In the first final they beat Stewarton Thistle, a club later known as Kilmarnock Ladies, invited across the border to play in the cup. (It was also known that Scottish clubs enjoyed playing in the Men's FA Cup in the early years.
Kilmarnock Ladies FC is the oldest club in Scotland and there were three Scottish opponents included in the English competition between 1971-3.
Other FA Cup Final winners included Lowestoft and Fodens!

From 1983, the Doncaster Belles dominated the competition and between 1983-94, The Belles appeared in every final bar one. Since 1995, Arsenal (14) and Millwall along with other professional league clubs appear to have taken a grip on the competition....no amateurs and no Scots!

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

Gary Winston Lineker need not be introduced. He is a national hero, even now!

On 21st September 2004 he was playing for Nagoya Grampus Eight, finishing a successful career as an England striker, who had kept his "nose" clean and set a fine example to any young lads (or lasses) who wanted to be a respected footballer. he retired having injured a toe in a league game.
From humble beginnings in Leicester, we all know his career time line although he might have gone down the cricket path at one stage. So successful was he at football and cricket that his school report read "Must devote less of his time to sport if he wants to be a success"!!!

Well Gary was lucky that he did what he did and that he was in the right place at the right time to get a contract, even if the BBC didn't bank on his presenting MOTD in his underpants to pay back a "bet" when his old club, Leicester City, won the Premier League Championship against all odds in 2016!

Gary holds many records but the most goals (10) for England in FIFA World Cup Finals might be the most treasured.
At 58, he is in good shape, despite the concern that his second son, Harry, was involved in a "football riot" recently. Harry was always likely to be involved with a bit of "theatre".

What ever, Gary has a book published recently on shelves called "Behind Closed Doors: Life, Laughs, and Football" by GL and Danny Baker (Penguin).

He is associated with humorous Walkers' Crisps adverts in the 1990s, especially a brand known as "Salt and Lineker". On Channel 4 the adverts rated 9th best in a "100 Great Adverts" in 2000. He also set up Goalhanger Films Ltd in 2014 and has many other irons in the fire in the media.

His club career lasted nearly 570 games with 281 goals and 80 apps for England for 48 goals. Born in Leicester with parents who ran a stall in the City market, Lineker's "Who do you think you are?" revealed an ancestor who was a poacher and another who was a legal clerk.

Here's an other blog with GL starring:
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/06/lineker-needed-izal-roll.html
and his best goals,,,,,,,,,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMzqN4T0JKI

SAKKAA-SOCCER

Well,,,,we all know how close soccer (Association Football) is to rugby. Don't get me started. With the rugby World Cup starting this weekend in Japan it would be amiss not to say something about the "egg chasers", who seem to have preferred the rugged game. South Africa, of course, are top notch but the country has hosted a soccer World Cup and Japan, having won the opening match today, rate baseball and soccer as their most popular sports. Rugby comes somewhere after Judo and Sumo. In the top flight are also: PURORESU- professional wrestling, boxing, autoracing, golf and tennis.
Cuju which means kick ball (shukyu) later was known as kemari. The 3rd-2nd Century "game" was a simple juggling performance kicking a ball through a hoop into a net, which gradually developed into a competitive game.

Lieutenant-Commander Archibald Douglas of the British Navy taught his naval cadets the game in Japan between 1873-9, a time when the game was growing in England. In Japan during the 1920s, various local associations formed, importantly the national FA and by 1930 there was a national side. Japan took part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, beating Sweden 3-2, but losing the quarter-final 8-0 to eventual Gold Medal winners, Italy. Great Britain also took part, losing to Poland in the quarter-final 5-4, with Shearer (Donald not Alan) and Bernard Joy-the famous journalist, scoring a goal each. Japan joined FIFA in 1939.

Known as Sakkaa after the USA influence, the game in Japan acquired a National League in 1965 with 8 amateur clubs formed by "companies". The national team won Olympic Bronze in Mexico 1968 and the Professional J-League formed in 1992, eventually with 18 teams. Lineker had something to do with that.
The Women's national side, known as the Samurai Blue won the Women's FIFA World Cup in 2011.

Yasuhito Endo has made 152 appearances for his country.

CRISTIANO AND PIERS

This is the interview televised last night with Piers Morgan and Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro. I found it interesting and there are some very good facts and figures, not just about the number of visitors on Instagram that Cristiano has. Sir Alex doesn't get much of a mention! Its 40 mins worth or so. Stick with it even when the ads appear.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ld850

No chip on his shoulder. Some good film football including 145 footballing records....one being the first player to score in every minute of the game! (I think 90 rather than extra time).

1929, 1991, 1969, 1990,1996,

Watching Liverpool make life difficult for themselves in Europe last night took me back to September 18th 1991, five years after the Heysel disaster (1985), when the UEFA ban on English clubs playing in European competitions for five years was served with the extra year added especially for Liverpool FC.

On that day in 1991, Liverpool drew Kuusysi Lahti from Finland in the UEFA Cup 1st Round and won 6-1. They took their feet off the gas in the return leg losing 0-1. Founded in 1934 the club was originally known as Lahden Pallo Miehet-the Lahti Ball men. In 1969 the word Kuusysi was introduced into the club's name, meaning "69". So now you know! By 1996 the club was known as FC Lahti.


http://footballsite.co.uk/Statistics/European/Europeanappearances.htm#Liverpool

In the 4th Round they lost to Genoa.

On this day in 1990, Dundee United met Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjaroar from Iceland in the UEFA Cup 1st Round and attracted a huge crowd of 263. They won the tie over two legs 3-1 and 2-2 and then lost to Vitesse 0-5 in the next round. The Icelandic club was originally a gymnastics club founded in 1929.

COMICS AND CARDS

I've said this before and I will say it again; I love my BLOG! Not because I am trying to compete with those established Bloggers, who get thousands of viewers and probably some financial reward; NO it's research and typing fills a delightful hour in a late afternoon and yes, I get genuinely fed up if I miss a day, which sometimes happens. If there are any publishers out there, there's a book amongst my several years of reporting unusual and quirky events in our great game. Yesterday it was Roy Race, today to show continuity, Comics and Cards.

The comic football reads and serials were first established in the 19th Century, football being a popular subject as the game grew. Comics such as Fun and Funny Folk published cartoons highlighting the humorous side of the game and young Victorians were gripped by serials in magazines such as Big Budget and Boys of England Journal.
Maxwell Scott was the top man writing excitements such as Stolen: The English Cup! The Missing Forward and The Goalkeeper's Revenge. Comics promoted football tournaments for readers such as The Big Budget Football Cup which offered a silver cup and handsome medals.

I have an "almost" interesting collection of cigarette cards, some of football stars and clubs and associated memorabilia. Football cards were first issued in 1887 by Bradford toy shop owner, John Baines. The self-styled "Football Card King" worked from a dolls' hospital on Bradford North Parade, distributing cards from a brightly coloured, horse drawn, carriage with a monkey riding on the horse's back. Small shield shaped cards featured colours of teams kits and sometimes drawings of popular players.

Baines hid "gold" medal cards in the packs that could be exchanged for prizes. These could be traded through a card flicking game known as "skaging". The winner took all.
Baines' cards became very popular, but inevitably card competitors increased in number including a favourite, WN Sharpe, also from Bradford, who produced a range of "Play Up" cards featuring different teams and players.

Tobacco companies then began to produce cards to help sell their fags! The first set was produced in 1896 by Manchester firm Marcus and Co. Needless to say some of these collections are very sought after.
Churchman Cigarettes produced this multi-featured card in 1914 with an individual portrait....


Archie Mitchell played for Queen's Park Rangers.
There's more.....
https://spartacus-educational.com/Fcigarette.htm

My collection includes

ROY OF THE ROVERS

 This is the original Roy Race, of Melchester Rovers in one of the club's characteristic strips. Roy appeared as a comic strip first in 1954, on September 11th. Then there  was a weekly comic devoted to just Roy and his story from 25th September 1976 until 1993 and he has appeared in various forms including a serialised strip in the Today newspaper. Various annuals are published too, along with various other incarnations in, monthly comics, publishing old stories. In 1993 strips in Shoot magazine told stories about another footballer, "Ray" and in July 1997 he is resurrected in the "Match of the Day" magazine through to 2001.

There was a "collection" edition published as "Best of Roy" editions in the 1970s and 1980s through to April 2009.

In 2016 Roy's rights were sold to "Rebellion Development" who rebooted Roy in hard cover novels, as Roy joins up with his old chum, Blackie Gray, who was transferred from Islington FC, a Premier club.

Roy used VAR way back when he was playing for the Rovers against Eastgate. He used stadium screens to re-run a goal scored by Eastgate, By chance the screen failed so the crowd and referee etc couldn't make their mind up. The goal stood.
When Rovers scored, the screen showed offside! Tough stuff.

Roy was also a champion of fair play as we all know, so there were no arguments.

Roy lost his left foot in a helicopter accident, but continue to perform, he has been through various hairstyles and fashion changes, met Alf Ramsey as manager of Rovers, been sponsored by Gola, his son Rocky joined in in 1993, Ron Atkinson has posed with Roy life sized cut outs, Emlyn Hughes has played for the Rovers and others have been introduced to the comic strip including Bob Wilson, Bobby Robson, Malcolm MacDonald and we all know that Tubby Morton regularly witnessed the "Race Rocket" in the various comic strips.
Roy has made a single with Gary Lineker-not a best seller.

Include a terrorist attack in "Basran", club bankruptcy, Rovers in the second division, Roy as a manager in AC Monza in Italy, a car crash when his wife was killed and so on, an exhibition of Roy's life is being shown in the National Football Museum, Manchester.

JAMS IN HISTON AND IMPINGTON

An excursion into Cambridgeshire yesterday brought back a few memories and taking a brisk walk from the Holiday Inn at Histon and Impington, I followed the floodlights, finding myself at an industrial yard and on the new guided bus route which seemed to be obsolete.
What wasn't dying a death was Histon FC, a club lucky to have flat, fen land fields to play on and a growing population that is encouraged by regional development on valuable roads and rail links to Cambridge, London and the Midlands.
So Histon Village is a thriving settlement and I understand the football club's junior section is full of excited youngsters, male and female. I was there when youngsters were arriving for their Saturday morning matches.
Histon FC was once known as Histon Institute and their nickname is The Stutes. In 1847 the railway arrived and soon a certain John Chivers and Sons family bought a field in the locality to plant orchards and the like, producing jam. In 1870 Chivers' sons set up manufacturing in Bradford and he sent his fruits north on the railway. In 1895, they diversified into Christmas puddings, lemonade, jelly and marmalade and established the first large canning factory in Europe. By 1939 they employed over 3,000 in their business and in the 1960s eighty trains a day passed along the railway. In 1963 a road bypass was built and opened by the Queen Mother.
A local employer days includes the International Whaling Commission and the East of England Development Agency.

Histon FC now play in the Isthmian North. The club has risen from the Cambridgeshire League, East Anglian League during the war, Spartan League (from 1948), Delphian League and into the Athenian in the 1970s when there was "restructuring", East Counties' League 1980s, Southern League, Conference South, Conference National. Exciting times have been known with FA Cup ties in 2008-9 against Swindon Town winning 1-0, making progress in the following round against Leeds 1-0 and finally meeting their match against Swansea City. They also recently failed to get promotion to the Football League, losing to Torquay 1-2 in the play-off.

The local community club is the Hornets and the adult club's best known past players include the "long ball" John Beck, Steve Fallon, David Livermore and Tommy Finney who played for Northern Ireland in the 1982 World Cup. A suitably named Ian Cambridge is their record transfer spend, buying him from Chelmsford for £6,000 in 2000.

BAD BEHAVIOUR-SORRY DAY OUT!

I know its the 13th but its also Friday, so bad luck.
Avoiding the inevitable I'm not going to mention the 13th, so on September 12th (actually the right date for these events) 2001, the Chelsea team were in New York when Frank Lampard, John Terry, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Jody Morris allegedly stripped, swore and vomited in front of Americans at the Post Hotel at Heathrow when due to  travel to Bulgaria when air travel was chaotic following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. Planes were postponed and the players unsure of what their next move might be. Chelsea was due to play in a UEFA Cup game v Levski Sofia away, but the game was postponed as a mark of respect. The Chelsea lads were not happy, clearly. The players mocked the Americans and took their annoyance out on the guests at the hotel.

In July 2014, Lampard signed for New York City FC in the Major League and the newspapers mocked the Chelsea player's behaviour stating that " British soccer star poised to join New York team once mocked Americans after 9/11 attack". Naturally, the Chelsea authority reacted and fined the players, apologised for their behaviour and sent £130,000 to the victims fund.

September 12th 1974. Brian Clough at Leeds
https://www.thesackrace.com/news/12th-september-2018/remembering-when-leeds-united-sacked-brian-clough-after-just-44-days

Read "The Damned United" by David Peace and see the film.

FINAL TEST AT THE OVAL

I am not short of ideas, although I do have mowing to do, the Test to watch and Walking Football at 4pm. With England playing Australia at cricket at The Oval, I thought I would recycle a few past blogs that have historical reference to England, Australia and The Oval. I hadn't realised how prolific I have been...and hopefully will be in the future!! (108-2)

So here some references to The Oval, about football of course, and note they are nicely spaced through the past three years. Believe me there are some great facts in this lot so don't go out and mow, watch or play!!

https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-oval-home-to-oval-and-round-ball-as.html

https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/england-v-scotland-ladies.html

https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/aussie-rules-ok.html

 England v Scotland 6th March 1875 2-2 at The Oval.

A GAME OF THREE HALVES

In September 1894 Sunderland and Derby County played a complicated game of three halves at Sunderland's Newcastle Road ground.
Perfect weather, 8,000 spectators what could go wrong? The referee hadn't turned up. Tom Kirkham missed his rail connection and sent a telegram to warn the clubs that the 3.30 ko would not be possible. Both clubs couldn't expect the crowd to wait until 5.30pm when Kirkham was due to arrive, so local ref, John Conqueror filled in.
John Campbell (below) scored for Sunderland early on and by half time the home team was 3-0 up with further goals from Hannah and Hyslop.

Official ref, Kirkham, then turned up, declaring the first half  null and void! He restarted a "new" first half under his control. With the original score likely to have been telegraphed to newspaper office all over the country, Sunderland didn't mess around wasting "print" and were soon 3-0 up again, in the new first half. Hannah scored another two with Campbell the other.

In the second new half..... "third half", John Campbell scored again, Hyslop got 2, Miller and Gillespie tidied up as Sunderland blitzed the new second half 5-0, making the official score 8-0.

Derby goalkeeper John Robinson didn't blame anyone for the heavy defeat but managed to mention that he couldn't find any rice pudding to eat as his pre-match filler! His motto was "No pudding, No points". He usually ate a bowl before every game.

Sunderland went on to win the league and Derby, with the famous Steve Bloomer (below-1892) in its team, finished second to bottom, avoiding relegation by beating Notts County in what was called a "Test Match". In those days-a play off  decided who went down to Division Two.

So on April 27th 1895:
Bury the top of Div 2 beat the 1st Div bottom club Liverpool 1-0 at Ewood Park, at a neutral venue.
Derby second bottom Div 1 beat Notts County 2nd Div 2  2-1 at Filbert Street -neutral.
Stoke 3rd to bottom Div 1 beat Newton Heath 3rd in Div 2 3-0 at Burslem.

Campbell scored 22 goals of the club's season's total of 80. A Scot from Renton, he was only 36 when he died in 1906. He scored 136 goals for Sunderland in 186 games and then went to Newcastle Utd and made his debut on September 4th in 1897 against Woolwich Arsenal, scoring in a 4-1 win. He led Newcastle to their first promotion in 1898 but only played 29 games, scoring 12 goals, retiring to become....you guessed it.....a licensee.

Campbell's brother Robert became the first manager of Bradford City in 1896 and founder board member of the West Yorkshire League

TELETEX AND OTHER STUFF

I'm having a meal out tonight and the two "males" in the group have agreed to "watch the highlights later" since watching England is too painful to watch live. The match v Kosovo at Southampton may be a tense one, but we shall not know the score until after the late night show.

Youngsters will not know what this is!! For me this was a modern phenomenon a few decades ago and to be honest I didn't resort to Teletext very much. Teletext was first put out in the 1970s, originally by John Adams, with Phillips leading Video Display Units with this type of page appearing regularly on TV screens in 1974. It was picked up by ITV and called Oracle and the GPO as Prestel.

Tonight I promise not to nip to the lav to have a peak at my phone.

The first attempt to provide the British public with a football TV broadcast was on September 10th 1960. ITV took up the baton and broadcast Blackpool v Bolton a First Division game between two average teams. Both had been prominent in the 1950s with FA Cup wins but not so successfully in the league.
It was a dismal game with low ratings and no super star Stanley Matthews who was injured. That would be like Man City playing without Sterling. Not so many people had access to TV and those that did cluster around a small screens (they were small) didn't go to the match live. So both ends were sort of losing out.

The following week (17th) Arsenal v Newcastle was televised and then on the 24th, Tottenham v Aston Villa, but numbers were poor and the games not very enlightening. ITV abandoned the project until 25 years later when Tottenham played Nottm Forest on October 2nd 1983.

In 1998, Sept 9th,  MUTV was broadcast for members at £4.99 per month. "Get MUTV and get closer to Manchester United" was the slogan. ITV and BSkyB had an investment in this venture.

For luck on September 10th 2008 England beat Croatia 4-1 away in a World Cup Qualifier. A young lad called Walcott scored 3 and another "youngster" Rooney 1. It all went terribly well.

KOSOVO-WATCH OUT FOR THE BLACKBIRD FIELDS

Some sources define Kosovo as meaning "field of blackbirds" (kos=blackbird).
Kosovo v England may well provide a land mark game for both teams. It is the first time the two have met. England may get the bird.
Captain Kane may move up the England goal scorers list with 25 goals at the moment from 40 games.
Kane has Bryan Robson 26/90 caps, David Platt 27/62 caps and Frank Lampard 30/106 in his sights.

Top scorers are Michael Owen 40/89 caps, Jimmy Greaves 44/57, Gary Lineker 48/80,
Bobby Charlton 49/106, Shearer 30/63 and Wayne Rooney with 53/120.
and then Tom Finney 30/76, Nat Lofthouse 30/33, Vivian Woodward 29/23, Steve Bloomer 28/23.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/soccerengland/kosovo-manager-shouts-warning-to-england/ar-AAH22V2


Kosovo, population 1.7 million, as a national team, formed with the break up of Yugoslavia, played its first international on February 14th 1993 against Albania losing 3-1 away in Tirana, Albania. The team then was disrupted by the Kosovo war and only came together again in September 2002 playing Albania-a 0-1 loss, in Pristina, Kosovo.
Matches took place in the Cyprus-Turkey FF Cup against Northern Cyprus 0-1 and the Sampi 4-1.
* Sampi-remember them??
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-rebel-world-cup.html
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2019/07/conifa-sportsbet-european-cup.html

In 2006 Kosovo beat Monaco 7-1, Saudi Arabia 1-0.
In March 2014 Kosovo played Haiti drawing 0-0 in a friendly to celebrate the nation being recognised by FIFA.
Other matches were then played against Turkey, Senegal, Oman, Equatorial Guinea and Albania.

In June 2016 as a member of UEFA and FIFA their first game was against Faroe Islands winning 2-0.

Since November 2017 Kosovo has not lost in 15 FIFA World Cup games, Friendlies, UEFA Nations League games, UEFA Euro qualifications.
The group with England and Kosovo also includes; Czech Republic, Montenegro, Bulgaria.

BULGARIA

With England and Harry Kane especially, trouncing Bulgaria's national team yesterday, it leads me to tell you a bit about the Bulgarian Football Association.
Their present coach is Krasimir Balakov.
Captained by Ivelin Popuv 85 apps (Litex Lovech, Gaziantespor, Krasnodar, Spartak Moscow)
Most caps Stilliyan Popov 105 apps (CSKA, Celtic, Aston Villa)
Top Scorer Dimitar Berbatov (did he play for Sofia, Leverkusen, Fulham, Man U, Spurs, Monaco PSOK, Kerala Blasters) 48 and Hristo Bonev 48 (CSKA Sofia and Lokomotiv Plovdiv)
Founded in 1922 the Association played its first game in Vienna against Austria, then a power house in European football, on May 21st 1924. They drew 0-0.
In the Paris Olympics, 1924, the national team took part for the first time and by 1930 were also due to take part in the Uruguayan hosted World Cup but failed to turn up due to storms and hurricanes over the Atlantic. They were due to play Brazil, Yugoslavia and Bolivia.
In 1968 Bulgaria reached the Olympics final.
Their next W.C. appearance was in Chile in 1962.
Their best FIFA World Cup success was a semi-final place in 1994, beating Greece, Argentina, Mexico and Germany en route.
In 1968 they reached the Quarter-finals of the UEFA Euro Championships.
The Balkan Cup is a competition that they enjoyed playing in tournaments and winning 4 times. The competing countries including Albania, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia. These nation states have been altered of course over history!
Most famous player in this competition that lasted until 1980 was Hungarian, Ferenc Puskas, who scored 84 goals in 85 appearances for his country. He also played four times for Spain following his "nationalisation" when signing for Real Madrid in their 1950-60's pomp.

Recent heroes; Hristo Stoitchkov, who played 454 times for clubs including Barcelona and Palma, scoring 219 goals.
Present FIFA ranking 60.