THE DOLL'S HOUSE

In its heyday,  the Park Avenue sporting complex in Bradford hosted cricket, rugby union and rugby league as well as football. The Bradford football club had its home there but was better known as Bradford (Park Avenue) to avoid confusion with rivals Bradford City. Bradford PA were members of the Football League from 1908 to 1970 and were famously members of the Southern League (yes the Southern League!) before joining the Football League. Their Park Avenue ground also famously had the 'Doll's House' in one of its corners (pictured), which was similar to The Cottage at Fulham's Craven Cottage home. Less well known is that Bradford PA were the only League side to have their record attendance recorded in a war-time fixture. You wouldn't have thought large attendances would have been allowed in the war years but on Saturday 8th April 1944, 32,810 crammed into their Park Avenue ground for a War cup-tie against Blackpool. The great attraction - Stanley Matthews was playing for the opposition.

The original Cottage was built in 1780, by William Craven, the sixth Baron Craven and was located close to where the Johnny Haynes Stand is now. At the time, the surrounding areas were woods which made up part of Anne Bolyne's hunting grounds.

The Cottage was lived in by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (who wrote The Last Days of Pompeii) and other somewhat notable (and moneyed) persons until it was destroyed by fire in May 1888. Fulham has had 8 previous grounds before settling in at Craven Cottage for good. Therefore, The Cottagers have had 12 grounds overall (including a temporary stay at Loftus Road, meaning that only their former 'landlords' and rivals QPR, have had more home grounds (14) in British football. Of particular note, was Ranelagh House, Fulham's palatial home from 1886 to 1888.

Craven Cottage has been Fulham FC's  home ground since 1896. The ground's capacity is 22,384; although the record attendance is 49,335, for a game against Millwall in 1938. Next to Bishoip's Park on the banks of the River Thames, it was originally a royal hunting lodge and has a history dating back over 300 years.

The stadium has also been used by the USA, Australia, Ireland and Canada's men teamand was formerly the home ground for England's Rugby League team. Read this previous Craven Cottage story.

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Alan Shearer, in 1988, after having made two substitute appearances in the League for Southampton made his starting debut for the Saints against Arsenal at the Dell and at 17 years 240 days of age became the youngest player to score a hat-trick in the top flight. Southampton won 4-2.

In 1988, a 17-year-old  240 days Shearer scored three goals on his first senior start for Southampton in a 4-2 win over Arsenal at The Dell,  thus becoming the youngest player – at 17 years, 240 days – to score a hat-trick in the top division, breaking Jimmy Greaves' 30-year–old record.

Yet as much as he fondly remembers that game 30 years ago, Shearer will never forget the way boss Chris Nicholl kept his feet firmly on the ground. “Chris came up to me straight after the game and said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow — you are back in to clean all the kit and the boots!’. “That was his way of bringing me back down to earth. I still went out for a few drinks that night with friends in Southampton. I wasn’t actually old enough to drink but I still managed to have a sneaky one or two! But I only went to a couple of bars because I had to be up early the next morning to go back to The Dell and clean all the c**p up!”