BECKHAM MARMITE, OWEN FRUITY

David Beckham is a bit marmite, even today, but on the 6th October 2001 he was certainly not a villain, when he scored that fabulous 30 yard free kick in the 93rd minute to earn England a draw with Greece in a World Cup Qualifier at Old Trafford.
The draw meant that England went through to the Finals in 2002, the only home nation international team to qualify. Earlier they lost to Germany at the last ever game at the "old" Wembley when Dietmar Hamann scored and Kevin Keegan resigned from the manager's job in the home team toilet! An earlier draw with Finland 0-0 left England bottom of their group and five points adrift from Germany. Keegan was replaced by Sven-Goran Eriksson and Michael Owen came up with a hat trick in Munich to see England win 5-1.

It's one of those games when everyone remembers where they were!
Then came their final game against Greece and they had to match or better Germany's final result. England had beaten Greece in six previous games and drawn the other. England spluttered to being behind twice and Germany were drawing in Finland.

In the Japanese/Korean Finals, England scored 2 goals in three matches in the qualifying group drawing 2 and winning one with Beckham's penalty against Argentina. It all came alive in the second round knock out, beating Denmark encouragingly 3-0 and then we lost to 10 man Brazil 1-2 in Shizuoka. Owen scored again, Rivaldo equalised with that long free kick over Seaman.

On the 8th October 2005 Beckham was sent off for getting two yellow cards for fouls on Austrian Ibertsberger in a World Cup Qualifier v Austria, again at Old Trafford. He became the first England international to be sent off twice. With only 10 men, England muddled through to victory after Lampard's penalty. England had drawn with Austria 2-2 away.
Beckham had previously been sent off against Argentina in 1998.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHCqp7Xbjdg
Remember??

ONE THING AFTER ANOTHER

Not quite sure why Bobby Smith got a mention in the recent "Heroes" blog? there must have been something about the weekend date that got me going, but hey ho, why shouldn't I remind you about one of Spurs and England's centre forwards?

Born in Lingdale, North Yorkshire, Smith wasn't living too far away from Middlesbrough. He played for Redcar Youth but was spotted by a Chelsea scout; yes, they are always prepared! The Pensioners man took Bobby away from the north to the "evil" capital where Bobby soon learned a few lessons.

Bobby was a stocky old fashioned centre-forward who played for Chelsea from 1950-55 (74 apps 23 goals), when for £18,000, he went to Spurs where he played over 270 games, scoring 176 goals, which is some return. During this peak in his career, he played for England in the early 1960s winning 15 caps and scoring 13 goals, including a memorable double, stuffing the Scots 9-3 at Wembley in 1963.

With various troubles in his life, he slipped away from discipline and despite trying to keep his career moving at Brighton and Hove Albion (31 apps 19 goals), he eventually slipped into playing for Hastings United, where I saw him live at Horsham FC in an FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round in 1966.
With temporary stands and other improvements to the ground, over 7, 000 watched the "Hornets" win 2-1, earning a red letter day again at Queen's Street, their home ground, against Swindon Town with Don Rogers in his pomp. My Geography teacher from Collyer's GS, Brian Hardcastle, from Huddersfield originally, was part of the Horsham squad.

In 1947-8, Horsham won their way through to the First Round Proper of the FA Cup, for the first time. En route they beat Hastings United away 1-2 in the Preliminary Round. They then played Haywards Heath FC in the First Qualifying Round, drawing 1-1 and then winning 8-3 in the replay.
East Grinstead was the next opposition (QR2) and Horsham brushed them aside 5-2 at home. Worthing was their next opponent in QR3, with a 1-0 win after extra time, then Redhill in the Fourth Qual. Rd.

In the First Round Proper, another very famous centre-forward, Tommy Lawton, greeted the Sussex team at his home ground and County quickly found themselves 0-1 down. Stung by that surprise from the Hornets, Lawton eventually helped his side to a 9-1 victory.

Notts County soldiered on to Round 4 where they lost 1-0 to.....yep, you guessed it, Swindon Town-Don was not playing!
Swindon then lost to Southampton (who are presently playing against Chelsea as I write), the Saints then lost to Spurs 0-1 in Round 6 (Quarter-final) Tottenham lost to Blackpool (Matthews and all) who lost to Man Utd in the 1948 Final (4-2)...a programme that I have in my collection which must be worth a few shillings by now!

ABSOLUTE HEROES

What a day this has been! I am within shouting distance of Kingsmeadow, so football is not very far away. On this day some very important footballers added to the history of the great game.

In 2014 the players of Cheadle Town FC were subjected to some Russian infiltration as the North West Counties League team offered the Russian U19 national team a pitch and an opposition to warm up against before they entered the European U19 Championships in Northern Ireland. The Cheadle lads were generous hosts and the Russians came, saw and conquered 22-0.

In 1946 After a £13,000 transfer from home club Bradford Park Avenue Len Shackleton (above right) signed for Newcastle United and made his debut against Newport County in a Second Division match. Over 52,000 came to see the "Clown Prince of Football" begin his heady career and he scored 6 goals in a 13-0 victory for the Magpies. Three of his goals came within 155 seconds. He soon put in a transfer request

"...those people upstairs, and whatnot – I never hit it off with... the fans are so brilliant at Newcastle that I feel guilty when I call them (names). But I'm not calling the fans, I'm calling the club... I've no bias against Newcastle – I don't care who beats them!"

— Shackleton liked the Geordie people but felt that Newcastle United was not a well run club. Nothing new there then??

http://gottfriedfuchs.blogspot.com/2014/01/pm-walters-am-waltersh-m-walters.html

For those not versed in football history, the death of PM Walters will not mean much to you. However PM and his brother AM, known affectionately as the Afternoon and Morning  were stalwarts as full backs in the England team between 1885-90. They were big boys and used their heftyness to good effect in defence with well time shoulder barges. Playing club football for the famous  Corinthians they came from Charterhouse School and featured in the  inspirational Old Carthusians teams of that era. On this day in 1936 PM passed away aged 73.

I haven't even mentioned Bobby Smith of Spurs and England. Maybe more of his tomorrow.

LLLLDDDDWLLLLDDDD

This amusing banner was hung by Magpie fans during Newcastle United's Premier League match away against Swansea City on October 4th 2014.
Alan Pardew was the troubled manager and he lasted a further three months before he moved on to Crystal Palace. For information, the match ended in another "D", 2-2.
Jonjo Shelvey played for Swansea that day having joined them in 2013. He made a move to Newcastle United in 2016. Bony and Routledge scored for Swansea and Cisse grabbed a brace for United.
When Shelvey was 16 years and 59 days, he became the  youngest debutant to play for Charlton Athletic on 26th April 2008. The match was against Barnsley at Oakwell.
The longest named football club in Britain is Western Alliance Club in Wales:
Clwb Peldroed Llanfairwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch-somewhere around 70 letters (though some claim it has 90 characters).
The Dutch club NAC Breda has 86 characters which I am not going to type out.
This club badge represents a Malaysian Kelantan club MPKB-BRI-UBES FC that has 89 letters.

BYE BYE WALTER-HELLO ALF

October 2nd 1954 England played Northern Ireland at Windsor Park winning 2-0 with Johnny Haynes of Fulham (56 caps, 22 as captain) and Don Revie of Manchester City (6 caps) scoring. 59,000 saw this match which followed on from England's quarter-final failure (we lost 2-4 to Uruguay) in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland.
Revie, of course, went on manage the national team for a while. 

The England team included Wood in goal, Foulkes, Byrne, Wheeler, Billy Wright as captain, Barlow, Matthews, Lofthouse and Pilkington. I know most of these, but come on readers, tell me more about those underlined. Just a bit of homework for you.

On October 3rd 1962 England played for the first time in the European Championships (then known as the European Nations' Cup). This was a first leg match at Hillsborough in front of over 35,000 against France. This ended in a draw 1-1. Ron Flowers of Wolves scored from a penalty. Walter Winterbottom, England's manager, made this his last game and handed over to Alf Ramsey in February for the second leg. Goals from Bobby Smith and Bobby Tambling could not prevent a 2-5 defeat in Paris. It was an inauspicious start for Alf.
Jim Armfield captained the team in both games and made it to 41 caps before handing over to Bobby Moore in May 1964 v Uruguay at Wembley, which started well with a 2-1 victory.
Team: Springett, Armfield, Henry, Moore, Labone, Flowers, Connelly, Tambling, Smith R, Greaves, Charlton R.

WAGGY SEES RED

Ken Aston, an English football referee of some note, saw how complicated life was for the referee, German, Rudolph Kreitlein, who had to deal with Rattin and the Argentinians during the 1966 World Cup quarter-final against England at Wembley. Aston, on his way home from the game, noted that language differences caused a few issues for both ref and players. He was inspired by a traffic light and came to the conclusion that the red and yellow cards should be introduced to football. Simple!

Decision making did move too fast and it was not until October 2nd 1976 that David Wagstaffe was "red carded" in the Football League, when playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers at Leyton Orient in a Division Two game. 

George Best was also sent off on the same day, playing for Fulham v Southampton, also for foul and abusive language. 
This was a great period when Best, Moore and Marsh had signed for the Cottagers, bringing show biz to the club. I saw them play once at Craven Cottage.

Here are a few minutes of Waggy in his prime, against Southampton.
http://int.search.mywebsearch.com/search/video.jhtml?enc=2&id=XNxdm019YYgb&n=77edc526&pg=video&pn=1&ptb=308DCB58-2A13-42C4-993A-77A59B6C34C6&ptnrS=XNxdm019YYgb&qs=&searchfor=LfiZePU1zlwxPLldH365UlrgEwAWtoGcM_LOpaUZ5DPESAWzeLtfGekzrF3Mz-s_QrtkCzSrlD2q4WGqR4An_wlkkzO66GxEEfb_Q2mQONf9qWtVmV-z1vyyx6D8zSUeQxTkvm1tS6PpyEjUC2Wp9fdprtN_uS9ZUzR-q161-_BOf6ZFMxdwlUcZnQOjez1mxe3vd4oSdLV7sOXDRbj-mjIF5wDmuxka0re33FhfBfXRAwwz00L0spG5idTzXQJ9NqcjlDmV-t91tqII4mhXeROsxeea2zhGXcQ-RCiJp1re8NSGIAEwOJDisfUzHejnhpJ7TG5Y_FFQqhfwGx5cnQ&si=CJeTnrb1k7ECFZMctAodh14dkA&ss=sub&st=sb&tpr=sbt

Wagstaffe was born in Manchester and played for City, Wolves mostly, LA Wolves, Blackburn Rovers (when he was sent off) and Blackpool. 
For Wolves, he had his best time appearing over 300 times, scoring the "Goal of the Month" on MOTD when Wolves beat Arsenal 5-1 in 1971. 
He also regularly presented assists for Derek Dougan and John Richards, a prolific forward pairing for the Wolves. 
Dave never made an international team apart from England Youth but did turn out for the Football League XI. In those days silky wingers were a bit of a luxury midst Ramsey's gritty disciplined 433!!

Wagstaffe scored in the UEFA  Cup Final against Spurs in 1971 and later played in the 1974 League Cup Final against Manchester City, Wolves winning 2-1.
he retired inevitably to run a hotel in Blackpool and Waggy's Bar at Molineux. He died from a heart attack in August 2013 aged 70.

KURDS AND A WAY FORWARD

 Yes, its the Kurdistan flag with two Dalecarlian horses on show ( a traditional decorated wooden horse from the Dalcarlia region of Central Sweden) - but you knew that didn't you?
Dalkurd Fotbollsforening (FF) from Uppsala plays in the Swedish Second Tier and represents 40 million Kurds, some of whom have migrated to Sweden from their home territory where there has been a constant clash with Iraquis. The football club was founded in Borlange on 26th September 2004 by 9 Kurds, purely as a social project. Their home stadoium holds around 6,000 and is called the Domnarvsvallen
The club was playing in Tier 7 div 6 and from small beginnings the club is now joint top of the Swedish Tier 2 "Superettan" and with 6 games left of the season, they should be promoted to the top division, the Allsvenskan.
Chairman, Ramaza Kizil, is chairman and founder of the club who travelled from his homeland to Sweden in 1989. Dalkurd grew out of previous club IK Brage, who helped finance the venture, and attracts local migrants who are prepared to train and play seven days a week. They have a mixed squad including ex-Celtic player Mohamed Bangura and Gambian international Kebba Ceesay, but a majority of Kurds, Palestinians and an American Jew.
Team captain Peshraw Azizi, of Kurdish, descent takes football back to his home country with coaching and kit and encourages better players to come to "his" club helping to integrate migrants with the local environment. The two Junad Rekani brothers, local Kurds from Iraq, who own a telecommunications business have invested in the club.

In the long term the Kurdish club hopes to meet their political rivals in European competition, possibly Fenerbache or Galatasary, sporting and social opposition from Turkey.

It is not just social issues that surround the club for on March 24th 2015, the club was due to fly back from a game in Barcelona with Germanwings Flight 4U 9525. The club changed the booking to fly home earlier "at the last minute" and later learned that Flight 4U 9525 crashed into the Alps killing everyone on board.
Here is a list of "diaspora" football clubs in Swedish leagues
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Diaspora_football_clubs_in_Sweden
On October 5th Ostersunds FK play Kurd FF in the league ko 19.00
Now you do know about Ostersunds.....
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/from-dracular-to-sami.html