WHEN FOOTBALL BEGAN

  125 th Hillsborough anniversary celebration kicks off campaign for new headstone for Ambrose Langley, the first captain of Hillsborough. One hundred Sheffield Wednesday fans enjoyed a special evening on Saturday to mark the 125 th anniversary of the opening of Hillsborough on September 2 nd 1889 when Wednesday beat Chesterfield Town 5-1 in the first game at the famous old ground. © Mark Harvey                                                                                                                                             © Mark Harvey   ...

 For Wednesday programme v QPR this Saturday  The Hillsborough 125 th anniversary celebratory event this Saturday at 8pm in the 1867 suite will feature a series of short films highlighting great matches and players of the past. Fans who witnessed games in the 30s and 40s recall the thrill of their first match, the passion of Wednesday supporters and how the game was played. The event, organised by the authors of the highly popular Fred Spiksley biography book from 2016, is part of a fundraising drive towards the costs of a new headstone at Burngreave Cemetery for the first captain of Hillsborough. Ambrose Langley took the club to promotion in 1899-1900 before winning the top flight title for the first time in 1902-03. A second followed twelve months later. A 10-minute film recalls Langley’s career and his unique personality. Club historian Jason Dickinson is amongst a range of speakers that include Michael Knighton, whose great grandfather Willie Layton was a team mate of...

  FUNDS NEEDED FOR MEMORIAL PLAQUE TO HONOUR FIRST BLACK INTERNATIONAL ANDREW WATSON EXCLUSIVE by SIMON MULLOCK SUNDAY MIRROR – 08/09/2024 https://www.pressreader.com/uk/sunday-mirror-northern-ireland/20240908/283283168048379 ANDREW WATSON was the illegitimate son of a slave woman and a Scottish plantation owner who has been recognised as football’s first black international. Now, almost 150 years ago after he made history by captaining Scotland to a 6-1 victory over England on his debut, an appeal has been launched to raise funds for a memorial plaque to be unveiled at the school he attended in Yorkshire. Watson, a full-back who could play in either flank, is set to be honoured by the Crossley Heath Grammar School in Halifax next March. European Cup-winning former Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and Manchester United defender Viv Anderson, who in 1978 became the first black player to represent England, will unveil the plaque. Dean Jones, headteacher at Crossley Heath...

  OPENING OF OLD TRAFFORD 19 February 1910 First Division United 3 (Homer, S. Turnbull, Wall), Liverpool 4 (Goddard 2, Stewart 2). By a remarkable coincidence the first game at Old Trafford turned out to be the match with Liverpool. It had been planned to open the stadium a month earlier against Tottenham Hotspur, who were making their debut season in Division One, but building delays forced it back. Only 7,000 were present at Bank Street to see United beat Spurs 5-0, around one sixth of the number that turned out for the Liverpool game. This saw 45,000 crowd onto the new terraces of a ground that the United directors had declared would eventually be big enough to hold 100,000 spectators. Perhaps, but it would certainly not be in their lifetime. Today if either United or Liverpool opened a new ground it would attract worldwide attention, but not so in 1910. Attention that weekend was fixed on the third round of the FA Cup and The Manchester Guardian even managed to list...