UP THE AVENUE

ON THE 31st January 1953, the League Champions, Manchester United, were held at Old Trafford by Isthmian League team, Walthamstowe Avenue, an "amateur" team from East London. This was a 4th Round FA Cup tie and having held United 2-2 away in front of nearly a 35,000 crowd, the Avenue played their replay at Highbury and attracted nearly 50,000, who saw them lose 2-5 to United.

Prior to that Walthamstowe Avenue (see below) beat Wimbledon (then an amateur club) 3-0 away after a 2-2 draw at home, in Round 1.
In Round 2 WA forced Watford to a 1-1 draw and then beat them 1-2 at Watford, a "neutral ground".
In Round 3 Avenue at home beat Stockport County 2-1.

Manchester United continued towards the Cup Final but met their match against Everton on February 14th, 2-1 in Round 5.

Everton then beat Aston Villa away 0-1 in Rd 6 (Quarter-finals) and were beaten 4-3 by Bolton Wanderers in the Semi-final, on neutral ground, Maine Road, 3-4 on March 21st.

In the other half of the draw, Blackpool won their way through to Wembley with Stanley Matthews and all, beating the Wanderers 4-3 in what was known as the Matthews Final.

Blackpool had beaten Sheffield Wednesday away 1-2 in Rd 3, Huddersfield at home 1-0 on January 31st, Southampton after a 1-1 draw at Blackpool and then 1-2 away at The Dell, and Arsenal 1-2 at Highbury.

Finchley was the only other non-league club to venture into the 3rd Round.

Clubs reaching the 2nd Rd that season were: Lanelly, Bath City, Bishop Auckland, Great Yarmouth Town, Peterborough Utd, Hereford United, Gainsborough Trinity.

Now what about Walthamstowe Avenue? Founded in 1900 the club was successful but faced closure in the 1980s, merging with Leytonstone and Ilford in 1988. The club then "diluted" and "became" part of the ever changing Dagenham and Redbridge FC, then basically lost its identity. It has lately revived as a Essex Sunday Corinthian League side. Its history lives on.......The club ceased to exist in 1988 when it merged with Leytonstone/Ilford, who later became Redbridge Forest and merged with Dagenham to form Dagenham and Redbridge. They have since been revived as an amateur football club, currently playing in the Sunday Essex Corinthian League.

 Left is the1960-1 FA Amateur Cup Final, 2-1 win for the Avenue at Wembley, WA v West Auckland Town in front of 45,000.
The Avenue also beat Leyton the FA Amateur Cup Final in 1951-2, 2-1, watched by 100,000 in the Wembley Stadium.

https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2019/11/dave-thomas-family-and-hannah.html

READ THIS LINK TO WEST AUCKLAND AND DAVE THOMAS....MORE HISTORY.

STOKING THE FLAMES/NOT A DODDLE FOR HODDLE

January 30th 1951, Bobby Stokes was born and a little later, he scored the winner when Second Division Saints, beat Top Flight, Manchester United 1-0 in the 1976 FA Cup Final. Bobby won a car for being the first scorer in the match and rumour has it that he started taking driving lessons BEFORE the Final, fully expecting to score first to win the prize.

Staying with Southampton, Saints' manager in 1999, was Glen Hoddle who made comments to a journalist about disabled people, which was published in "The Times". Hoddle said: "You and I have been  physically given two hands and two legs and a half-decent brain. SOME people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime." You may need to research that but you will get the drift. Hoddle was sacked four days later.

Hoddle has been manager of Swindon Town (earning promotion to the Premier League-"hard to imagine!"), Chelsea (taking them to the FA Cup Final), Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur (reaching aFootball League Cup Final) and Wolverhampton Wanderers. He managed England to the second round of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, where they lost to Argentina on penalties (remember it?). He was dismissed from the England job in 1999 off the back of an interview with Matt Dickenson, in which he was widely interpreted as saying that people with disabilities and others are affected by karma from past lives, He said that his words were "misconstrued, misunderstood and misinterpreted" and that disabled people had his "overwhelming support, care, consideration and dedication".

WHO IS WORTH WHAT?

Just been listening to Talksport and news of Man Utd and its worth and spending potential. Below the richest football clubs in the world. Ranked by Forbes magazine on their worth in US$ as of May 2024.

"Current" rankings.

in 2024	in 2023	Team	Country	Bill $	% change on year	Debt as % of value	Revenue ($M)	Operating income ($M)
1	1	Real Madrid	Spain	6.6	9	15	873	76
2	2	Manchester United	England	6.55	9	10	785	187
3	3	Barcelona	Spain	5.6	2	31	840	-145
4	4	Liverpool	England	5.37	2	3	719	102
5	5	Manchester City	England	5.1	2	0	869	147
6	6	Bayern Munich	Germany	5.0	3	0	781	84
7	7	Paris Saint-Germain	France	4.4	4	2	754	-126
8	9	Tottenham Hotspur	England	3.2	14	33	665	161
9	8	Chelsea	England	3.13	1	20	620	0
10	10	Arsenal	England	2.6	15	1	560	140
11	11	Juventus	Italy	2.05	-5	2	459	11
12	12	Borussia Dortmund	Germany	1.98	2	1	441	75
13	13	Atlético Madrid	Spain	1.6	4	7	382	20
14	14	Milan	Italy	1.43	1	0	405	81
15	17	LAFC	United States	1.2	20	11	140	9
16	15	West Ham United	England	1.1	2	6	289	66
17	-	Inter Miami	United States	1.03	72	15	118	8
18	16	Internazionale	Italy	1.0	-3	44	398	39
19	18	LA Galaxy	United States	0.95	3	0	95	3
20	19	Atlanta United	United States	0.9	6	0	95	9

Top previous rankings.

Year	Team	League	Value (USD million)
2023	Real Madrid	La Liga	$6,070
2022			$5,100
2021	Barcelona		$4,760
2020	Real Madrid		$4,180
2019			$4,239
2018	Manchester United	Premier League	$4,123
2017			$3,690
2016	Real Madrid	La Liga	$3,645
2015			$3,260
2014			$3,440
2013			$3,300
2012	Manchester United	Premier League	$2,235
2011			$1,864
2010			$1,835
2009			$1,870
2008			$1,800
2007			$1,453

DODGEY SCORE LINES-COMPLICATED!

On January 27, 1994, the national football teams of Barbados and Grenada played against each other, as part of the qualification round for the 1994 Caribbean Cup. Barbados won 4–2 in extra time. In the last minutes of regular time, both teams attempted to score own goals. The result has been described as "one of the strangest matches ever".

In the 1994 Caribbean Cup, the tournament organisers implemented a variant of the "golden goal" rule: that is, the first goal scored in extra time not only won the match, but was also worth two goals. Barbados needed to win the match by a margin of at least two goals to qualify for the final over Grenada. 

Barbados led the game 2–0 until Grenada scored in the 83rd minute, bringing the score to 2–1. Barbados then deliberately scored an own goal, tie-ing the game at 2–2, to force extra-time, so that they could take advantage of the golden goal rule to achieve their needed two-goal margin. 

This resulted in an unusual situation: for the last three minutes of the MAIN match, Grenada tried to score in both goals! Either outcome (3–2 on points, or 2–3 via goal difference) would have advanced them to the finals, while Barbados had to defend both goals. Ultimately, Barbados was able to prevent Grenada from scoring, forcing extra-time. Barbados then scored the golden goal to win the match.

The outcome of the match was criticised by Grenadian coach, James Clarkson, who felt that his team had been unfairly prevented from advancing to the finals. However, given the fact that the unusual tournament rules had not been broken, FIFA cleared Barbados of any wrongdoing.

The 1994 Caribbean Cup was the fifth edition of the competition and was played in Trinidad and Tobago. Qualification took place in various other locations around the Caribbean in early 1994. At the time, FIFA had been testing variations on tournament rules, and the tournament organisers had decided that any matches where the score was tied at the end of the normal 90 minutes would go to extra-time, which would feature a golden goal that, if scored, would be worth two goals. Barbados, Grenada, and Puerto Rico were drawn into Group 1, and on January 23 the "round robin" tournament, kicked off in Barbados, with the home team falling 0–1 to Puerto Rico. Two days later, Grenada defeated Puerto Rico 2–0 after a golden goal in extra-time. This put Grenada at the top of the group with three points and a +2 goal difference. Thus, the only way that Barbados could advance to the finals would be if they could beat Grenada by a margin of at least two goals.

Before the match the standings were as follows:

Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Grenada	1	1	0	2	0	+2	3
Puerto Rico	2	1	1	1	2	−1	3
Barbados	1	0	1	0	1	−1	0

January 23, 1994

Barbados	0–1	Puerto Rico

Barbados National Stadium, Saint Michael

---

January 25, 1994

Grenada	2–0 (a.e.t.)	Puerto Rico

Grenada National Stadium, St. George's

SOME OTHER CORRUPTED SCORELINES!!

• Disgrace of Gijón where a  1982 World Cup game  between West Germany and Austria was played out as a mutually agreeable 1–0 win to West Germany as this result ensured both teams qualified for the next round at the expense of Algeria.
• Thailand 3–2 Indonesia, where an Indonesian defender deliberately scored an own goal so his team did not have to face hosts Vietnam in the semi-finals of the 1998 Tiger Cup.
• AS Adema 149-0 SO i'Emyne, where SO l'Emyrne players deliberately scored 149 own goals in protest of refereeing decisions that had gone against them in the previous match.