The Alcock Internationals- game 5.

ENGLAND 1-0 SCOTLAND Scorer: Charlie Clegg                                                                                                                 Oval  24.02.72
‘England’		‘Scotland’
Charles Stephenson	Wanderers	Charles Nepean	Oxford University
Edgar Lubbock	No Names	Montague Muir Mackenzie [c]	Old Carthusians
Albert Thompson	Wanderers	Edward Elliott	Harrow Chequers
Charles Alcock [c]	Wanderers	William Lindsay	Old Wykehamists
Alexander Bonsor	Wanderers	Robert Crawford	Harrow Chequers
Twice an FA Cup winner with Wanderers (1872 &73) and runner up twice with Old Etonians. Played 2 official internationals for England.
Charley Chenery	Crystal Palace	Harold Ferguson	Royal Artillery
Charlie Clegg	Sheffield	Hugh Mitchell	Royal Engineers
The Napoleon of Football, later chairman and then president of the Football Association, a distinguished referee and administrator.		Lieut.Mitchell played in the 1872 FA Cup Final.
Thomas Hooman	Wanderers	Fitzgerald Crawford	Harrow Chequers
Percy Weston	Barnes	Edward Ravenshaw	Old Carthusians
Robert W. Vidal	Westminster School	Henry Stewart	Cambridge University
Charles Woolaston	Oxford University	Charles Thompson	Wanderers

Absentees galore for Scotland- Renny-Tailyour with an injury sustained in the England v Scotland Rugby match (05.02.72) at The Oval, depictions of which are so often mistakenly used in Association Football histories. Kinnaird and Kirkpatrick were also out of the side.The Napoleon of Football, JC Clegg  of Sheffield came into Alcock's XI. Clegg also played in the first official international 9 months later. On that occasion he complained then that the southerners ignored him. Charley Chenery of Crystal Palace was another who was in the first official England XI.  

Series Overview:

England		Scotland
3	Won	0
0	Lost	3
2	Drawn	2
6	For	3
3	Against	6
RS Walker (4), AJ Baker, JC Clegg (1 each)	scorers	REW Crawford, C Nepean, H Renny-Tailour (1 each)
CW Alcock, E Lubbock, RSW Vidal (5)	Most apps	W Lindsay (5)

Albania 1911?

The World Wide Web  is a source of a great deal of fascinating information, and an invaluable resource for students of football history. Statistics, images and match reports relating to games from bygone ages are readily available, often from reliable sources. However, some caution is needed.

If you were to look into the history of Albanian football, for example, you would read that the Kategoria Superiore began in 1930. 
There is, however, reference to a tournament taking place in 1911. Internet sites routinely recycle this as fact.  
However, the Kategoria Superiore of 1911 is a journalistic hoax originating in 2012.
Here are the facts.

The leading authority on Albanian Football is Dr Giovanni Armillotta. You can find plenty of his work online. 
Dr Giovanni Armillotta makes no reference to the Kategoria Superiore of 1911.
Dr Giovanni Armillotta has a timeline of Albanian football which lists the founding of clubs and the playing of significant matches: Dr  Armillotta lists no club earlier than 1913 (Indipendenca Shkodër)
The country's governing body, Federate Shqiptare E Futbolitt was founded in 1930.

Sport Ekspress newspaper, in February 2012, carried a story that there had been a tournament in 1911. The original source has gone from the  archives, but I have found an outsourcing at:
 http://www.peshkupauje.com/2012/02/tirana-trofeun-e-pare-ne-futboll

The pixelated photograph accompanying this article captioned Tirana Squad 1911 is of an American football team. It appears here: http://drunkard.com/issues/55/55-all-star-alcoholics.html and here: http://www.elevenwarriors.com/2013/07/23750/pride-of-ohio-marion
The final is described as being between Tirana and Peqini. Sources attribute this as being SK Tirana versus Klubi Sportiv Shkumbini. This is a ridiculous stance to take, as neither club was founded until the 1920s. 

1913 

The earliest Albanian club,Indipendenca Shkodër, was founded in 1912. In October 1913 Indipendenca Shkodër played team of the Austro Hungarian Imperial Navy. The Navy won 2-1. Indipendenca's goal was scored by Palokë Nika, who organized the match.

Walsall v Arsenal 1933

Formidable ball from the  (in)famous cup tie.

The weekend of the third round of the FA Cup has always been one of the highlights of the football fan's calendar. For many it can be the biggest game of the season, if your team draws a big club. It can see small provincial grounds packed out or set the scene for away trips to famous stadiums, excursions that attain a legendary status over the years. 

What most will remember though is the upsets, the exploits of the Giantkillers. 

I recommend this site to anyone interested in this romantic aspect of the game, the occasions on which the glamorous world of the international superstar has collided with that of the part time journeyman. 

Third Division North side Walsall scored a famous victory over Arsenal in January 1933. Arsenal fielded 7 internationals and gave debuts to 4 reserve team players.  Walsall's 2-0 victory signaled the end of the Arsenal careers of 3 of those debutants. Incensed by a combination of ineptitude and foul play, Herbert Chapman actually told Tommy Black, who had conceded a penalty , that he was banned from Highbury and from training as soon as the game was over. Chapman was true to his word. 

Walsall		Arsenal
Joey Cunningham	GK	Frank Moss*
Jack Bennett	RB	George Male*
Sid Bird	LB	Tommy Black
Jack Reed	RH	Frank Hill**
George Leslie	CH	Herbie Roberts*
Harry Salt	LH	Norman Sidley
Billy Coward	OR	William Warnes
Chris Ball	IR	David Jack*
Gilbert Alsop	CF	Charlie Walsh
Bill Sheppard	IL	Alex James**
Freddie Lee	OL	Cliff Bastin*

* England international

** Scotland international

In the next round Walsall traveled to Manchester City and lost 2-0.

Ernest Mangnall

Ernest Mangnall is the only man to have managed both Manchester City and Manchester United. 
 Mangnall's first position in 'management' was with Burnley. He  joined the club in March 1900, with relegation already a certainty.  He was in charge at Turf Moor for 3 whole seasons- after missing out on promotion by 4 points in the first there followed a modest mid table term and then re election having finished very bottom of Division 2. 
Mangnall  must have shown some administrative flair though. When Manchester United (one year on from the renaissance of Newton Heath) were looking for a new 'secretary' (United didn't have a 'manager' until 1914) he was the man they recruited. After missing out narrowly on promotion for his first 2 seasons, Mangnall guided United back into the First Division in 1905 after a 13 season absence. 
During his 9 seasons with the club, Manchester United won their first major honours, 2  League Championships (1908, 1911)  and an FA Cup (1909). 
Magnall's move to City was soured by the fact that in September 1912 he was still in charge of United when the 2 sides met at Old Trafford. The press picked up on the fact that Magnall showed undisguised joy that City  his 'new team', had won 1-0. 
The Magnall era at Hyde Road was punctuated by the war- in  8 seasons no silverware was won, but City were the dominant Manchester side.
Magnall oversaw Billy Meredith's return to City in 1921 having signed him for United in 1906. On both occasions Meredith had been on a 'free transfer'- though United had paid him a signing on fee of £500 in 1906. 

Season	Div.	Pos.	FA Cup
Burnley
157 games  36.31% win
1900-01	Div 2	3rd	R2 1
1901-02	Div 2	9th	R1
1902-03	Div 2	18th	IR2
Manchester United
471 games 51.38% win
1903-04	Div 2	3rd	R2
1904-05	Div 2	3rd	IR
1905-06	Div 2	2nd	R4
1906-07	Div 1	8th	R1
1907-08	Div 1	Winners	R4
1908-09	Div 1	13th	Winners
1909-10	Div 1	5th	R1 3
1910-11	Div 1	Winners	R3
1911-12	Div 1	13th	R4
Manchester City
350 games 43.14% win
1912–13	Div 1	6th	R2
1913-14	Div 1	13th	R4
1914-15	Div 1	5th	R3
1919-20	Div 1	7th	R2
1920-21	Div 1	2nd	R1
1921-22	Div 1	10th	R3
1922-23	Div 1	8th	R1
1923-24	Div 1	11th	semi-final
Total
978 games 46.01% win

¹ Beat Newton Heath 7-1 in R1

² IR= Intermediate round- a preliminary round before R1

³ Knocked out by Burnley

He Banged The Leather For Goal

I'm pretty sure that neither Charles Darwin nor Florence Nightingale had much interest in football. So here's one for your pub quiz. Who is the only football fan to appear on an British banknote? Bonus- what team did he support?

Most of you probably know that it was Sir Edward Elgar, arguably the greatest British composer and a supporter of Wolverhampton Wanderers.  Elgar celebrated his enthusiasm for Wanderers in a piece of music.

Elgar first went to see Wolves playing in the company of a local girl, Dora Penny, with whom he developed quite an attachment. He would later cycle the 70 km from Malvern to Wolverhampton to accompany her to Molineux. She recalled: 

It all delighted him.
The dense crowd flowing down the road like a river; the roar of welcome as the rival teams came on to the ground; the shouts of men calling to their player-friends by their Christian names – usually considerably shortened; the staccato ‘Aw!’ at a mishap (a most remarkable sound from a crowd of 60,000); and the deafening roar that greeted a goal.
Mrs Richard Powell (nee Dora Penny) Edward Elgar: Memories of a Variation

According to Dora this first game was a Birmingham League match between Wolves and Singers FC (later Coventry City) so her memory or estimate of a 60,000 crowd is a bit amiss.

In February 1898 Wolves beat Stoke 4-2 in a Football League fixture. At Elgar’s request, Dora sent him a local press report of the match. The report, in covering a move involving Billy Malpass, used the phrase 'he banged the leather for goal'. Victorian writers frequently employed terms such as 'the leather'  'the globe' or 'the sphere' when writing about the ball.  This phrase captured Elgar's imagination, and he set it to music. The 'score' was included in a letter he sent to Dora in March 1898.  

Billy Malpass

 Billy Malpass played at right back in the Stoke match, though he was generally a center half.
Born in  Wednesbury, he  was a one club man,  joining  Wolverhampton Wanderers  in 1891. He was in the Cup winning XI in 1893 and was captain of the side that lost in the 1896 final. Malpass  made 155 appearances for Wolves and scored 9 goals. His career was ended by a knee injury in 1899.