Burnley v Wolverhampton Wanderers, 1983
Burnley v Wolverhampton Wanderers was a clash between founder members of the Football League, whose very first meeting was on 22 September 1888. The two sides have just met for the 130th time, in the Premier League, but this match at Burnley’s Turf Moor found them in the Second Division as they fell on hard…
Hull City v Scunthorpe United, 1983
Unthinkable today, but the BBC’s flagship highlights programme, Match of the Day, once regularly featured football from outside the top division. This snippet from February 1983 shows the cameras visiting Humberside for a Fourth Division encounter between Hull City (who commentator Tony Gubba insists on calling ‘Hull Tigers’ long before that was seriously proposed) and…
John Sitton – A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing
John Sitton’s autobiography is a compelling, at times painfully honest, account of life at the sharp end of the Football League, in an era completely removed from today’s multi-million-pound business. If you’re familiar with his name, it’s more than likely through the YouTube clips taken from a 1995 Channel 4 documentary on Leyton Orient, where…
Manchester United v West Bromwich Albion, 1978
Manchester United v West Bromwich Albion at the end of 1978 is regarded as one of the finest English League games of the decade. The match contained many of the characteristic elements of domestic football of the era: packed terraces, a muddy pitch, all-British line-ups and managers, no shirt sponsorship, players numbered 1-11. An ugly…
Tony Ford, Football League Record-Breaker
Tony Ford made his Football League debut as a 16 year-old for his hometown club Grimsby Town in 1975. His final League appearance came 26 years later, on the 3rd November 2001, as a midfielder for Rochdale in their 2-0 Third Division victory over Torquay United at Spotland. In the intervening years Ford played for…
The Football League 1888 – Overview, Part Two
Playing kit, pitch markings and the rules of the game were all evolving, even as the world’s first professional football league came into being. Prior to the advent of the Football League, players had to buy their own kit, consisting of heavy jerseys without any ornament, ‘knickerbockers’ covering the knees, and socks. Each club was…
The Football League 1888 – Overview, Part One
When the fixtures for the first season of the Football League were drawn up at a meeting on 1 May 1888, the registration of players was “fixed for all clubs, so that every club will have equal chances in the kidnapping business”’, as the Accrington Times put it. All players had to register as professionals…
The Football League 1888 – Opening Day
Saturday 8th September is the 130th anniversary of the very first round of Football League fixtures, in 1888. The results on the opening day were: Bolton Wanderers 3 Derby County 6; Everton 2 Accrington 1; Preston North End 5 Burnley 2; Stoke 0 West Bromwich Albion 2; Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 Aston Villa 1 (Blackburn and…
The Football League 1888 – Preview
Football in England grew steadily in popularity over the nineteenth century, from the public schools to the creation of a governing body, the Football Association, in 1863, and the codification of the rules. It continued to expand during the 1870s and 1880s but, while predominantly southern amateur clubs enjoyed success in the FA Cup (inaugurated…
Arsenal v Bristol City, 1976
In the record-breaking summer temperatures of 1976, the Football League resumed on 21 August. Arsenal v Bristol City was one of the most intriguing First Division fixtures on the opening day of the 1976-77 season. It was the Bristol club’s first game in the top division for 65 years. In charge since 1967, manager Alan…
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