WOMBLES v DONS: CAPITAL GAME

Today's Capital Cup 1st round throws up a classic tie between MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon. MK Dons was founded in 2004 following the relocation of what was Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes. Wimbledon FC was founded in 1889 and played as an amateur and semi-professional club until it gained election to the football League in 1977, eventually reaching the First Division in 1986. When the FA demanded that clubs played at all seater stadia, Wimbledon had to leave their old ground at Plough Lane and shared with Crystal Palace, which proved unsatisfactory. To remain in the Football League, a relocation to Milton Keynes in 2003, where a hockey stadium would provide a good home, was required but this was not unanimously agreed by the club supporters so a new club, MK Dons, was formed. 

MK Dons abandoned any claim to Wimbledon's previous history and past trophies were held by Merton Council. Wimbledon FC had won the FA Amateur Cup in 1963 and then sensationally beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final in 1988 to achieve a double that only one other club had achieved, the Old Carthusians (FA Cup 1881 and FA Amateur Cup 1894, 95 and 97). History shows that the Royal Engineers also achieved this double although under two different names.

Back in Surrey, AFC Wimbledon emerged like a Phoenix in 2002, formed by the local and loyal members of the old club, joining the 9th tier Combined Counties League. The new club gained five promotions in nine seasons, rising into the 4th tier of Football League. 

In December 2012 the old and new clubs met in the 2nd round of the FA Cup, MK Dons winning 2-1 away from home and today they meet again.

HOCKADAY AWAYDAY NO HOLIDAY AGAINST HOLLOWAY

Barnsley born Mark Beevers made Millwall's Ian Holloway's day when he scored following a corner routine, against Leeds at the Den yesterday. It was a case of Holloway v Hockaday when Leeds' "manager?coach?director of football?" was in charge of the first game of the season in the Championship. Shaun Williams also provided a home special from a penalty to make sure that Leeds United continue to fret about their future. Nobody quite knows who pulls the footballing strings at Leeds although trigger happy owner Massimo Cellino probably has his own agenda. Dave Hockaday comes over as a genuinely enthusiastic, modest and honest coach who may have been thrown into the lions' den. Against Millwall his team could not claw themselves from defeat. It could be a long season.

TUNNEL VISION FOR CHURCH

The start of the new season; what do I do? Barnsley v Crawley Town or a local game? By the time I thought about it, the clock had moved round to 2.45. No chance of getting to Oakwell, so it was to local Penistone Church, where I witnessed a significant date in the club's history, as they were playing their first ever game in a higher pyramid league-Northern Counties League east division 1. So important is the club now that they have to have a "tunnel" to bring the players onto and off the pitch. This contraption is rolled out at appropriate times whereas the referee and his assistants merely had a bit of tape to form a corridor for them to walk down-no security therefore! Some Shirebrook supporters were not impressed with this ref who looked a little like Howard Webb and might have broken the tape to get at him.

The game was a good one, with opponents Shirebrook, a colliery town near Nottingham, seemingly the more experienced side, but they couldn't hit a mine shaft with their shooting, whereas Church nipped in with two goals and they hung on. Great news for Church who have been aiming for this higher status for a while now. Whilst I was there I met The Football Traveller, Chris Bedford, who promotes pyramid footy and spends a lot of time watching games such as this, which he writes up in his weekly magazine, sponsored by Cherry Red Records. It all counts and adds to the prolific archive of association football. Check out his website:www.the football traveller.com

LOAD OF BALLS

Early footballs ranged from human heads, stitched up cloth, animal and human skulls to pig or cow bladders. The Romans would kick the decapitated heads of their victims and an entire village would kick an animal skull along a path to a nearby “opposing” village square.   A Medieval custom was to take pig bladders used from livestock killed in preparation for winter sustenance and inflate them. They would play a game using their feet and hands to keep the "ball" in the air. The animal bladder balls were eventually covered with leather for better shape retention. In 1836 Charles Goodyear patented vulcanized rubber. Prior to this, balls were dependant on the size and shape of the pig's bladder. The more irregular the bladder, the more unpredictable the behaviour of the ball was when kicked. However; it would not be until the twentieth century until most balls were made with rubber bladders. In 1855, Charles Goodyear designed and produced the first vulcanized rubber soccer balls.  The following picture shows the Charles Goodyear ball that is on display at the National Soccer Hall of Fame which is located in Oneonta, NY, USA shown below: ( a museum I have been to!). In 1863, when the first FA laws were agreed, the size, weight and circumference of the ball was formalised.

Animals get their own back however. There are many cases of animals invading pitches. Jimmy Greaves became a cropper when in a World Cup game against Brazil in 1962 a dog ran onto the pitch and Greavsie, being quick, caught it. It pee’d on him and Garrincha, the very famous Brazilian winger, adopted the mutt after the game.

THE WALL DOES ITS JOB?

An excursion on my bike to Hadrian's Wall yesterday led me and trick cyclist, John Coombes, past a number of Northern clubs. OK I have mentioned West Auckland before (see previous) but finding local league, Haltwhistle Utd FC proved a bit of a problem, especially on our delicately hybrid cycles. The pitches,where most of the club's teams play, was under a bypass, near a railway and on a floodplain. Isolated, there would be no point having a plush club house because it would be ransacked judging by the local graffiti. Nevertheless, we met an old boy and his terrier near the green containers that were the changing rooms, who had played for the club in its halcyon days and when we spoke of Bobby 
Robson he had a tear in his eye. Neighbours along the wall, Hexham FC, play in the second division of the Northern Alliance and have a very nice pitch in the middle of a community running track by Waitrose. They were Division Two champions in 2012 and are plying their trade with the big boys now. With Carlisle to the west and Newcastle to the east, football has a strong tradition. Hadrian may have intended to keep the Scots out, but the mix of bravehearts and Geordies along this part of the UK makes for good football. I wonder if much will change should the "vote" give Scotland independence?

The lads from north of the border will need work permits.

THREE HAMPDENS

On 9 July 1867, “a group of gentlemen met for the purpose of starting a football team”. The Queen’s Park Football Club was born. It soon became a leading exponent of the game and was one of the founder members of the (English) Football Association as well as its Scottish counterpart. It regularly provided the Scottish players in the earliest international matches. Proud of its amateur status, and showing a confidence in the game’s future, the Club’s general committee in 1903 purchased 33 acres of land on the south side of Glasgow and built the largest and most technically advanced stadium in the world, Hampden Park.

It was immediately adopted as Scotland’s National Stadium and became a Mecca for clubs and international players everywhere. Its natural bowl shape and extensive terraces sustained attendances of around 150,000. In those days, crowd control was less stringent than now. 

Arguably the most memorable European Cup Final, Real Madrid v Eintracht Frankfurt, was held at Hampden in May 1960 with Real winning 7-3. Over 130,000 Scottish supporters were spellbound. These days, crowds are restricted as a safety measure.

The first Hampden Park was overlooked by a nearby terrace named after Englishman John Hampden, who fought for the roundheads in the English Civil War. Queen's Park played at the first Hampden Park for 10 years beginning with a Scottish Cup tie in October 1873. The ground hosted the first Scottish Cup Final, in 1874, and a Scotland v England match in 1878.

The club moved to the second Hampden Park, 150 yards from the original, because the Cathcart District Railway planned a new line through the site of the ground's western terrace. The new ground opened in October 1884. 

In the late 1890s, Queen's Park requested more land for development of the second Hampden Park. This was refused by the landlords, which led to the club seeking the present 30 acre site. James Miller designed twin grandstands along the south side of the ground with a pavilion wedged in between.

Hampden Park was the biggest stadium in the world when it opened in 1903 and along with Celtic Park and Ibrox, the city of Glasgow possessed the three largest football stadia in the world at the time. In the stadium's first match, on 31 October 1903, Queen's Park defeated Celtic 1–0 in the Scottish league. The first Scottish Cup Final played at the ground was an Old Firm match in 1904, attracting a record Scottish crowd of 64,672. The first Scotland v England match at the ground was played in April 1906 with 102,741 people in attendance, which established Hampden as the primary home of the Scotland team.

ON TOUR? OR BLOWN TO BITS

This weekend, as the country remembers the start of the First World War, I have to mention the 1000 or so Carthusians, members of the "Public School in Godalming", who fought and died for their country in the two World Wars. As August 1914 came round, over 600 boys associated with the school, signed up, fought and died. About 300 died later in World War 2. Many other schools all over the country suffered similar losses. The German government believed that the onset of war and its support of Austria-Hungary was a way to secure its place as a leading power, which was supported by public nationalism and further united it behind the monarchy.

Thomas Rowlandson (pictured) was an old boy of Charterhouse School and he was a member of the famous Old Carthusians Football Club. As a goalkeeper, with family roots in Darlington, he played for Cambridge University, Sunderland in 1904-5, England XIs  and the famous Corinthian FC of England. He perished on the parapet of a German trench, ahead of his men, fighting and leading in 1915, at the Somme. A year before his death, in August 1914, the Corinthian Football Club was heading to Brazil on a goodwill football tour, when they heard, on landing at Pernambuco, that hostilities had started in Europe. Two Carthusians in the tour party, John Fosdick, a Cambridge Blue and John Tetley, who played for the Corinthians, immediately found another ship heading to Europe and they joined the war as soon as they could. Fosdick died in action in 1915 and Tetley during the build up to Ypres in 1917. Worth reflecting on this the next time you don't get a decision from the REF!