WHEN FOOTBALL BEGAN

    The Victorian football battle for Bolton’s favours     The story of John Goodall – England’s Scotch Professor (1863-1942) When the history of football first began to be written in the 1930s it was generally recognised that John Goodall (1863-1942) was the first great professional footballer. He was the icing on the cake for the Preston North End side who captured the League and FA Cup double in the first season of league football in 1888-89 when he also became the first Golden Boot by outscoring everyone else. England international John, who scored 12 goals for his country in 14 matches during which he twice captained the side, and his Irish international brother Archie had earlier become the first brothers to play for Everton. Earlier John had moved from his Kilmarnock home to represent Great Lever, one of the first sides to defy the ban on players being paid for their efforts, between 1884 and May 1885. It was a period when Lever and their bitter l...

  Charlie Hurley was voted Sunderland’s best ever player by fans at the time of the club’s centenary at the end of the 1970s. Mark Metcalf wrote the Irishman’s authorised biography in 2008 and it remains the biggest selling book to date on any Sunderland (and Millwall) player. The book was republished by Manchester based Empire Publications in 2024. Charlie was born 90 years ago this weekend and we are pleased to be able to publish here chapter 1 of the book that provides a fascinating account of his early life in East London, where his family moved to escape the poverty of Ireland and was fortunate not to lose his life in the Luftwaffe bombings.   Chapter One Growing up in Essex and a lucky escape from a V-1 Charles John Hurley was born in number 10 [*] Devonshire Avenue in Cork in the south-west of Ireland on Sunday October 4th 1936 to Patrick and Christina [née Creedon] Hurley. His birth took place just as the storm clouds of the Second World War were approaching...

  As a result of winning the First Division for the first time in 1907-08, Manchester United were asked to play in the inaugural FA Charity Shield Match, which evolved from the Sheriff of London Charity Shield introduced at the end of the 1897-98 season that pitched the best amateur and professional team against one another. However, when the former fell out with the FA, a new format in which the Football League winners played the winners of the Southern League was devised. As a result, United played QPR in a match held at Stamford Bridge. Dashing the FA’s hopes that the new competition would be keenly anticipated, only 6,000 fans bothered to turn up on a day that saw the funeral of Prime Minister Campbell-Bannerman, who had died suddenly. Monday 27 April 1908 FA Charity Shield Stamford Bridge Manchester United 1 (Meredith), QPR 1 (Cannon) Manchester United: Moger, Stacey, Burgess, Duckworth, Roberts, Bell, Meredith, Bannister, J. Turnbull, A. Turnbull, Wall. QPR: Sha...

  In 1904, Manchester City won the FA Cup, becoming the first Manchester side to do so. A season later they almost did the Double but following which Billy Meredith was fined £100 and suspended by the FA without pay for seeking to bribe Aston Villa captain Alec Leake during the final league match of the season.  A furious Meredith then reacted by blowing the lid on Manchester City’s breaking of the maximum wage rule. This was bound to alert the FA, who once again was forced to carry out another lengthy investigation into the financial activities of Manchester City. Manager Tom Maley was interviewed and he admitted that he had followed, by secretly withholding some of the gate receipts, what seemed like standard English practice at time of making additional payments to all the players. He claimed that if all First Division clubs were investigated ‘not four would come out unscathed’.  Meredith supported such a statement saying that “clubs are not punished for breaking the...

  Relatives of England’s hat trick hero v Scotland who enjoyed the passionate support of the future Queen Mary (1910-1936) will receive his legacy cap on Saturday at Wembley   The England legacy cap of Sheffield Wednesday legend Fred Spiksley, the first player to score a hat-trick against Scotland, will be presented on Saturday to Clive Nicholson at Wembley prior to the match against World Champions Spain. Spiksley is the great-great uncle of Clive, who will be accompanied on this highly special occasion by his son Freddie, aged 11. England legacy caps are red commemorative caps awarded to every player who has represented the national team, marking their unique chronological legacy number. Spiksley’s cap will be numbered 209.   Gainsborough born Spiksley made his international debut against Wales in 1893 and from his outside left position scored three. It was a feat he repeated a few weeks later against ...