BOB CROMPTON

England's first international match against a non-British nation or Irish was on the 1908 tour to Central Europe. They met Austria at The Cricketer Platz in Vienna and won 6-1.
England later beat the Austrians 11-1 on the same tour before going to Hungary winning 7-0 in Budapest and beating Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) 4-0 in Prague. Crowds were small and there seemed to be little interest in the visit of the football founding "father country". This team won the London Olympics Final too. England's only challenge that year had been against the Scots at Hampden when they drew 1-1 on April 4th.

Born in September 1879, Bob Crompton of Blackburn Rovers, was a regular in the England team from 1906.  He played from May 1902 and captained the England team from 1903 until 1907 when Vivian Woodward (see previous blogs) took over the role. Crompton did appear as captain later, at times, until 1914 when his career ended after earning 41 caps, a record not beaten until Billy Wright of Wolves, did so in 1952.

When Crompton overtook the previous international appearance record (held by Steve Bloomer), he was given his portrait in oils by a gathering at Blackburn Rovers in 1911, a club he played for 528 times. He won two League Championships with the Rovers between 1912-14. During the war he turned out for Blackpool.

He also managed Rovers between 1926-1930 winning the FA Cup against the mighty Huddersfield Town in 1928. In this final, it was remarkably, the first cup final since 1910 in which both sides had scored! There was "Community Singing" for the second year, conducted by T.P.Ratcliffe, "Thr Man in White", AND Rovers were lucky to avoid relegation, whereas Town were flying high with Alex Jackson, one of the famous Scottish "Wembley Wizards" to the fore. Roscamp shocked Huddersfield with a first minute goal and two more goals came as Rovers controlled the game. Over 92,000 attended at Wembley.

He then ended up at Bournemouth as manager for a year and returned to Rovers, leading them to a Second Division title in 1938-9.

In March 1941 while managing Blackburn Rovers, in a league game against local rivals, Burnley, Bob suffered a heart attack, while his team won 3-2. He died, aged 61 and was eventually inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame (and the Blackburn Rovers HoF too).