The Football Alliance: Teams Who Didn’t Make the League
The Football Alliance was the most successful of the short-lived rivals to the Football League. The League’s founder, William McGregor, had ensured it would be an exclusive institution from its formation in 1888. McGregor issued his famous letter to invite only a select group of clubs to join the proposed new competition. The number of…
Jesse Carver & George Raynor: The British Abroad
Jesse Carver and George Raynor were post-War English coaches and managers who are regarded as pioneers in European football. Both men earned acclaim for successful spells in several countries during the 1950s, but remain largely unheralded in England. Born in Liverpool, Jesse Carver played for Blackburn and Newcastle in the 1920s and 30s, before coaching…
Wrexham v Anderlecht, 1975-76 Cup Winners’ Cup
Wrexham Association Football Club was founded 1864 as Wales’ first professional club – making them the third oldest professional club in the world. They have played at the Racecourse Ground ever since, the venue for Wales’ first international match in 1877. Elected to the Football League in 1921, Wrexham first experienced European football in the…
Orient v Chelsea, 1972 FA Cup
Orient hosted their illustrious London rivals Chelsea in 1972 hoping to add to a number of FA Cup upsets in the early 1970s. Among the spectacular results were Don Revie’s mighty Leeds United humbled at Colchester in 1971, and Southern League Hereford’s defeat of First Division Newcastle a year later – perhaps the most famous…
The Opening of Old Trafford
The opening of Old Trafford in February 1910 was a pivotal moment in the history of Manchester United. Today, they are one of the world’s most famous football clubs, and their home among the game’s iconic stadiums. Yet their origins were much more humble, and their early years often troubled. Their history began in 1878…
Béla Guttmann – The Greatest Comeback
The Greatest Comeback: From Genocide to Football Glory – The Story of Béla Guttmann is a compelling account of one of the great football managers, and a man whose life encompassed much of the tragedy and turbulence of the twentieth century. Charting the career of this Hungarian Jew and Holocaust survivor, author David Bolchover interweaves…
James Brown: An Interview
James Brown is from one of the USA’s most illustrious footballing families – his grandfather Jim played at the 1930 World Cup, where he scored in the semi-final, while his father George was also a US international. Both are in the US Soccer Hall of Fame. James himself is an active football historian, Vice-President of…
London Between the Wars: The Football League on Film
London was an obvious location for the UK’s fledgling film industry, with many early-twentieth century pictures shot in and around the capital. As cinema’s popularity grew in tandem with professional football between the Wars, a number of films naturally made use of London’s football grounds. One of the first of these was The Winning Goal…
Arsenal v Newcastle United, 1976
Arsenal and England striker Malcolm ‘Supermac’ MacDonald was the centre of attention at Highbury on the 4th December 1976. MacDonald came up against his former club Newcastle United, who he had left for a record fee of £333,333 that summer, for the first time in this game. Arsenal were in transition from the double-winning side…
Thames AFC and the Football League’s lowest-ever attendance
The brief history of Thames AFC saw an ambitious attempt to launch a new team in London, based at the West Ham Stadium in the Custom House area of East London. Built in 1928 with a capacity of 100,000 and designed by the celebrated Scottish engineer Archibald Leitch, the stadium was primarily known as a…
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