WHEN FOOTBALL BEGAN

  The first sending off in the Manchester Derby 35,000 streamed into Bank Street for a sensational match on the Saturday before Xmas in 1907. Both teams received the cheers of their supporters when they ran onto the pitch for a keenly awaited match. Despite the already intense rivalry between the two clubs, previous games have been relatively free of ill feeling. However, there was to be little indication of the ‘the season of goodwill’ on this particular occasion. Sandy Turnbull was to become the first player to be sent off in a Manchester Derby. Afterwards there was considerable criticism of George Dorsett, for falling over so theatrically when it appeared that he had received one of the slightest of flicks from the united man’s outstretched arm on his neck in the 55 th minute. The City man later told reporters the blow had chopped off his wind, which was reported in the Manchester Courier as at least ‘explaining what appeared to be a silly attempt on the part of the Ci...

  On 14 January 1893, Sunderland thrashed Aston Villa 6-0 at Newcastle Road. They had earlier in the season thrashed Villa 6-1 at Wellington Road. 12-1 on aggregate.  The Wearsiders were en route to a second league title. They were led by wing half Hugh Wilson. With professionalism not officially allowed in Scotland until 1893, the Ayrshire born Wilson came south from Newmilns to sign as a professional footballer for Sunderland only days before the Wearsiders were set to play their very first League match against Burnley on 13 September 1890.   Sunderland, formed in September 1880, had been elected to replace Stoke at the end of the 1889-90 season and now needed better players if they hoped to survive. They certainly got a good player in Wilson and he was to become the only player to play in the club’s first ever League game and also the first match at Roker Park on 3 September 1898.   The Scotsman was already capped for his country and had scored against W...

  Goal nets were first officially used on Monday 12 th January 1891 in the North v South match that was used to select the England side for forthcoming internationals. The nets had earlier been on trial in a number of games. They were invented to try and resolve arguments over whether the ball had gone between the posts by a Liverpool civil engineer John Brodie, who had taken out a patent for his “net pocket”. As they were made on Merseyside then it was appropriate that a player from there was the first to put the ball into them – Everton’s Fred Geary scoring for the North after quarter of an hour. It was widely agreed the nets were a success and The Football Field reported on 17 January 1891: “Mr Brodie’s goal nets are likely to be generally adopted.” Goal nets were an invention introduced to football to resolve ‘we wuzz robbed’ disputes, the aim being to end arguments over whether the ball had gone between the posts. The impetus for nets came with the introduction of t...

  WEST, ENOCH (NOTTINGHAM FOREST) (note - I am aware that Sheringham was top scorer in 1992/93 but only one of his goals were for Forest before he moved to Spurs)  Season: 1907/08 Goals scored: 26 (out of 59); 19 home, 7 away Percentage: 44.6 per cent Runners-up: Sandy Turnbull (Manchester United) and Albert Shepherd (Bolton Wanderers), with 25 goals each Forest finished ninth Enoch ‘ Knocker ’ West was born in Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire on 31 March 1886. He worked as a coal-miner and played for Hucknall Constitutionals until signing for Sheffield United in November 1903. He failed to make the first team at Bramall Lane and returned to the Constitutionals until June 1905, when he joined Nottingham Forest. In his first two seasons at The City Ground, utility forward West scored a total of twenty-eight goals, playing an important role in helping Forest win the Second Division championship.   In 1907/08, he was quite outstanding while occu...

  RAYBOULD, SAM (LIVERPOOL) Golden Boot winner  Season: 1902/03 Goals scored: 31 (out of 68); 21 home, 10 away Percentage: 45.5 per cent Runner-up: Grenville Morris (Nottingham Forest), 25 goals Liverpool finished fifth Sam Raybould was twenty-five years of age when he joined Liverpool for £250 in January 1900. Originally an outside right, he was switched to centre forward (in place of ‘Sailor’ Hunter) and became a highly successful marksman, being the first player to score 100 League goals for the Merseyside club, a feat he achieved in 170 matches covering a period of five years up to December 1905. Top scorer with seventeen goals when the Reds won the League Championship for the first time in 1901, his most prolific period came two years later, when he set a new club record of thirty-one in the League. This stood until 1930/31, when the South African Gordon Hodgson broke it with a haul of thirty-six. Not very tall, but solid in build, Raybould...

This is an article by Simon Mullock and myself that was in the Sunday Mirror in April 2020    L IONEL MESSI will have never heard of Jimmy Lang – but it's likely that the little-known Scot paved the way for the Argentine to become football's richest player. It is almost 144 years since Glasgow-born Lang made the journey from his home town to Sheffield to answer the promise of a better life - and the chance to become the first man to earn money from the game. Barcelona star Messi now earns a bank-busting £62million-a-year thanks to his status as football's most coveted talent. That's a far cry from the few pounds that Lang would have earned when he made his debut in November 1876 for the club that was to later become Sheffield Wednesday. But the arrangement, that now sees players paid a fortune for their talent and the entertainment they provide to millions of fans around the world, broke a FA regulation that was regarded as sacrosanct by the Public School old boys who h...

  Football’s first call for goal line technology was over 120 years ago Tottenham Cakes and Bolton Pies! The Story of the 1901 FA Cup The thrill of the FA Cup at the start of the 20 th century is brought to life in a tremendous book – the range of photographs and illustrations are especially brilliant - about the 1901 FA Cup which was won by Tottenham Hotspur, the only non-League club to win the competition. Spurs and Sheffield United faced one another in the final at The Crystal Palace. The game attracted a crowd of, at least, 110,820 and in the scramble to be able to watch all the action some spectators climbed on to trees. The match was to end in a highly controversial 2-2 draw with Spurs complaining bitterly afterwards that United’s equalising goal from Cocky Bennett that denied them victory should never have been allowed as it had not crossed the goal line. Goal line technology As the book outlines this led to ‘what may have been football’s first call for goal line ...