Ireland's first English based players

For the match against Wales at Belfast on 4th March 1899 Ireland picked players based with English clubs for the first time.
In their previous 50 matches they had enjoyed only 4 victories, all against Wales. Their first international of the season in February had seen Ireland receive a terrible 13-2 beating at the hands of England. 
On this occasion Ireland beat Wales 1-0.
The English based players selected were:

Archie Goodall (Derby County)

  Archie Goodall was born in Belfast when his father was posted there with the army. He went on to earn 10 caps.

Jack Mit Taggart (Walsall)

Taggart moved from Distillery to Middlesbrough as a 19 year old. He was an accomplished ball -playing full back, something of a rarity in an era where the defenders were expected to get rid of the ball rather than look for telling passes. Taggart then joined West Bromwich Albion. He had stepped down a level when he earned this, his only international cap. 

Tommy Ching  Morrison (Burnley)
 Morrison had won 3 previous caps whilst at Glentoran, and went on to make a total of 7 appearances for Ireland. He had 3 spells at both Glentoran and Burnley during his career, and also played for Manchester United and Celtic. He had the distinction of being a league championship winner in both Ireland and Scotland. Morison played at inside right or sometimes outside right. 


John Hanna (Royal Artillery Portsmouth)
Center forward Hanna won his only cap whilst playing for RAP in the Southern League.

Goodall was the only English based player selected for Ireland's trip to Celtic Park 3 weeks later when Scotland beat them 9-1. 

Founding Fathers

In the news this week-descendants of 'the Founding Fathers of football' attended the unveiling of a plaque at Wembley Stadium on 21st October, commemorating the foundation of ther Football Association 150 years ago.
Football historians have been a bit perplexed by the FA's approach to this project, their failure to consult people who have already conducted extensive research into the  Founding Fathers.
Andy Mitchell's blog has a great piece on the topic:
http://www.scottishsporthistory.com/1/post/2013/10/found-the-founders-of-the-football-association.html

Wembley Wizards?

England were not merely beaten. They were bewildered – run to a standstill, made to appear utterly inferior by a team whose play was as cultured and beautiful as I ever expect to see
Ivan Sharpe

Some teams enter into the mythology of football for sustained success, whilst others cement their places in history by one remarkable result. The Wembley Wizards of 1928 were a curious anomaly.
England had only beaten Scotland 6 times in the 20th century, and they hadn't won the British Home Championship outright since 1913.
England and Scotland had shared the Championship in 1927, when  England had registered a rare victory in Glasgow.
In 1928 one could have expected any showdown between England and Scotland as being a de facto world championship. Sadly neither team played much foreign opposition in those days, and even in countries whose abilities and reputations were advanced (Argentina, Uruguay, Austria, Italy) the English and Scottish  game was still revered as being  the pinnacle of football.  But if we look at the 1928 British Home Championships we will see that all was not well on either side of Hadrian's Wall.
The England Scotland match was the piece de resistance in the calender and was traditionally the finale of the championships. 
The season began disastrously for England- they lost 2-0 to Ireland in Belfast (Ireland's 4th win in matches between the 2). The following week Scotland managed a 2-2 draw with Wales in Wrexham (the Scots had never had much joy at the Racecourse) . The third match, played a month later saw England slump to a rare home defeat at the hands of Wales. 
The Championship resumed in February with a win for Wales in Ireland followed by an Irish victory over the Scots.  The final match was therefore a wooden spoon decider, with the table showing  Wales with 5 points from 3 games, Ireland 4 from 3, Scotland 1 from 2, England 0 from 2. 
A home win for England would have lifted them to third. 
Scotland though must surely have fancied their chances against such a miserable England side. 

The Scottish press, however, were less than confident, The Daily Record  stating in the build up to the match:
It's not a great side and the Scottish football public were unimpressed by the number of English based players in the selection. 

Here's the team:

Jack Harkness- Queens Park
Jimmy Nelson- Cardiff City
Tommy Law - Chelsea
Jimmy Gibson - Aston Villa
Tom Bradshaw- Bury
Jimmy McMullan- Manchester City
Alex Jackson- Huddersfield Town
Jimmy Dunn- Hibernian
Hughie Gallacher- Newcastle United
Alex James- Preston North End
Alan Morton- Glasgow Rangers


Not a great side? there are 4 legendary names in the list (Jackson, Gallacher, James and Morton). I guess the Scots were smarting from their poor showing in the earlier games.

80,000 saw Alex Jackson put Scotland ahead in the 3rd minute. Alex James doubled the lead in the 44th. In the second half Scotland were dominant. Jackson got his second (65) and James made it 4-0 (74). Jackson completed his hat trick on 85. Alan Morton was particularly effective, providing assists for 3 of the goals. England got a consolation goal in the last minute. 
It was a humbling experience for England to be beaten so comprehensively on their home turf by their oldest rivals, the first time they had conceded 5 goals in a game since 1883.

The table for the British Home Championship that season makes miserable reading for England:

	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Wales	2	1	0	6	4	5
Ireland	2	0	1	4	2	4
Scotland	1	1	1	7	4	3
England	0	0	3	2	9	0

So, a case of a poor Scotland side beating a dreadful England? 
The retrospective Elo ratings  place England at 16 after this game (their lowest ever) and Scotland at 4.

London v Sheffield 1866

The Kentish Chronicle 14.04.66

The Football Association was concerned primarily with the unification of the codes of football and the promotion of their own rules. This agenda is illustrated by the exchanges with the Sheffield Football Club during the 1860s. Sheffield, as we have seen, had their own established set of rules but would compromise in order to play other clubs. In 1866 Mr Chesterman, Secretary of Sheffield FC,  wrote to the FA requesting a game against one of the clubs affiliated to the Association. The FA interpreted this as a challenge to an FA Selection and therefore the match played on  31st March 1866 at Battersea Park was the first FA representative match. 

The FA XI (aka London) was drawn from 4 clubs:

A. Pember (N.N.'s)
 The first president of the Football Association (1863-1867)

Kinnaird  (Wanderers)
(Lord)  Kinnaird went on to play in 9 FA Cup Finals (plus two replays), and was on the winning side 5 times.In 1873 he represented Scotland against England and was president og the FA (1890-1923).

C. W. Alcock  (Wanderers) 

E.D. Elphinstone (Civil Service)

D.M O'Leary (Barnes)

J. A. Barnes (Barnes)- (in some sources J.K Barnes)

A.J. Baker (N.N.'s) 

-Tebbut (N.N.'s)

E.C Morley (Barnes)
The Football Association's first secretary and second President.

-Martin (Wanderers) 

R. W. Willis (Barnes)
  He was the second Secretary of the FA1866–1868, the man who accepted the challenge


London won by 2 goals and four touchdowns  to nil. Sheffield FC invited the Football Association to a return match in Sheffield, to be played under the Sheffield Rules.
The FA however, in keeping with their object of unifying the codes, would only entertain playing under Association rules, and it was 5 years before another representative match took place. 

Teams That Have Won The Football Association Cup - C.B Fry (1902)

Fry in his Rugby kit

C.B Fry is often put forward as being the greatest all round sportsman ever.
It is widely known that he was invited to take the throne of Albania. He was also an admirer of Hitler, who he met, and a lifelong sufferer of mental disorder.
This article in The Strand Magazine was published in 1902- the year that Fry played for Southampton in the FA Cup final. The previous year he had appeared in an international against Ireland.
We have pleasure in announcing that we have made arrangements with Mr. C. B. Fry, who is not only the greatest athlete alive, but also the most entertaining writer on all subjects connected with athletics...

http://archive.org/stream/TeamsThatHaveWonTheAssociationCup/TeamsThatHaveWonTheAssociationCup_djvu.txt

http://ia700400.us.archive.org/10/items/TeamsThatHaveWonTheAssociationCup/TeamsThatHaveWonTheAssociationCup.pdf

Jedermann sein eigner Fussball. John Heartfield (1919)

Jedermann sein eigner Fussball (Everyman His Own Football) was an illustrated magazine published by members of the Dada Movement in 1919, . It specialized in absurd satire and was invariably seized by the police as soon as it was off the presses. 
The German championships of 1918-19 were of course affected by the war. There were no National Championship playoffs, and only 3 regional championships were completed:
Brandenburg: Viktoria 1889 Berlin
Mittel-Deutschland: Hallescher FC
Nord-Deutschland: Victoria Hamburg

Strange days- 10 against 1

December 12th 1891- Burnley versus Blackburn Rovers at Turf Moor. In freezing conditions Burnley are 3-0 up at the interval. Blackburn are a bit slow in coming out for the second half and a fight breaks out between  Joe Lofthouse and Burnley's Alex Stewart.
The referee, no less a person than The Napoleon of Football, Mr Charlie Clegg, sends the two miscreants off. Nine of Lofthouse's teammates follow him to the changing rooms, leaving  goalkeeper Herby Arthur as the only Blackburn player on the pitch. 

Joe Lofthouse- early bath...

Herby Arthur- Offside Ref!

Mr Clegg- recognized a farce when he saw one...

Arthur is undaunted,  pointing out to Mr Clegg that there is no way that Burnley could be 'onside'. Mr Clegg is in agreement and he abandons the match. 

Burnley get the two points and Blackburn, full of contrition, are ordered to play a friendly at Turf Moor as a means of compensation. Rovers offer the explanation that their players had been too cold to continue...

Glasgow Charity Cup 1901

George Chilvers  is a Wigan Athletic buff who also does a brilliant line in colourizing old photographs. 
The match pictured here is between two great old Glasgow clubs, Third Lanark and Queen’s Park.  This was the semi final of the Glasgow Charity Cup played on 4^th May 1901. Thirds won 1-0 and went on to beat Celtic in the final. 
The venue is  Kelvingrove Park, The Glasgow Exhibition Grounds, with Glasgow university in the background. Kelvingrove Park was a temporary football venue that staged matches during the 1888 International Exhibition (a Scotland XI played Canada) and during the 1901 International Exhibition.

Bank Street

A match at bank Street- Newton Heath in their quartered shirts.

In 1893 Newton Heath moved to a new ground at Bank Street in Clayton. The site, originally the Bradford and Clayton athletic ground, is now the car park of the Manchester Velodrome. The club (who changed their name to Manchester United in 1902) played there until they moved to Old Trafford in 1910. 

10,000 people attended Newton Heath's first league game at the ground. By 1906 the capacity had been increased to  50,000.
Maps from the early 20th century show that behind the ground to the west was the Manchester Corporation electricity generating plant, with Albion chemical works on the north side of the ground and Bank St reet checmical works on the southern side.

This photograph shows the FA Cup 4th round match with Woolwich Arsenal played at Bank Street  in 1906. The match ended 2-3. In the background we can see the chimneys of one of the chemical works. Fantastic also to see the Edwardian attitude to spectator safety, with the fans on the roof of the stand.

The 'atmosphere' at Bank Street was legendary, with the density of the smoke (visible in the picture below) being said to favour the home side. The match shown however, resulted in another Cup defeat for United. This time Portsmouth are the visitors, a first round replay in January 1907 that Pompey won 2-1. 

Austria v Hungary

1904

The dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary (1867-1918) was the second biggest country in Europe (after Russia) and the third most populous ( after Russia and Germany). During this era however Austria and Hungary remained very distinct countries- there was no dual citizenship, one was either an Austrian or a Hungarian, and each state had it's own laws and language.  There were, of course, separate Football Associations.  Both states joined FIFA in 1907.
The 2 countries played their first international fixture in 1902, although they didn't know it at the time! The match (won 5-0 by Austria), was originally a Vienna select v Budapest select, but it was retrospectively designated an official international.
 Austria v Hungary is the second most contested fixture in international football, and during the 1902-37 era produced an impressive 4.3 goals a game.

Played	81	Goals
Austria	26	174
Hungary	35	180
Drawn	20

Zeki Rıza Sporel

Zeki on the attack against Galatasaray

Zeki Rıza Sporel joined Fenerbahçe as a youth, making his first team debut at 18. In a remarkable 19 year career for the club he scored 470 goals in 352 first team appearances .

Zeki played 16 internationals between 1923 (Turkey's first) and 1927. He scored 15 international goals and was captain on 10 occasions.