Centenary Celebrations: The Football League 1987-88
The Football League began its Centenary celebrations in the 1987-88 season. After a hundred eventful years, there were ninety-two clubs in four national divisions. The 1980s had been a turbulent decade of falling attendances, financial crises and high-profile tragedies, but the League was determined to celebrate a century in style. Secretary Graham Kelly saw the…
Play-Off Facts & Figures 1987-2023 – Appendix
The 2023 play-offs were the 37th time the end-of-season fixtures have been played since the system was (re)introduced in 1987. In that time, a number of clubs, managers and players have set notable records. This post gathers a few of the Football League play-off facts and figures over the past five decades. In 2023, Salford…
The Play-Offs (Part Two): 1987-1992
The play-offs were re-introduced to the Football League almost a century after the ‘test matches’ of the 1890s. The measure was agreed at a League meeting in December 1985 as part of a package of compromise measures to prevent a ‘Super League’ breakaway of the First Division clubs. Initially the play-offs were proposed to run…
Post-War London – Villains: The Football League on Film
London football grounds were an ideal location for post-War film and TV drama, their stands and terraces the perfect setting for crooks, spivs and villains. Orient’s Brisbane Road was used for a key scene in 1967’s Robbery. Based on the Great Train Robbery, Stanley Baker leads the gang planning an audacious armed robbery, who meet…
Everton v Liverpool, 1986 Charity Shield
The 1986 Charity Shield fixture captured Merseyside rivals Everton and Liverpool at the peak of their 1980s domestic dominance. At least one of the two appeared in nine of the ten Charity Shields during the decade (the only exception being Aston Villa-Spurs in 1981). Both clubs made regular Wembley appearances and met in the final…
England v Brazil, 1981 friendly
England and Brazil met in a May 1981 friendly, with the hosts still not sure of World Cup qualification for Spain 1982 at the time. They had drawn 0-0 with Romania at Wembley two weeks before this game, and had Home International visits from Wales and Scotland coming up. Before the season was out, they…
Blackburn Rovers v Charlton Athletic, 1987 Full Members’ Cup Final
The Full Members’ Cup was launched in 1985 as a response to English clubs being banned from European competition after the Heysel Stadium tragedy. It ran until 1992 and was specifically for the top two divisions (the ‘full members’ of the Football League), though not all clubs chose to enter. Despite its low profile the…
Mud, Poor Pitches and the FA Cup
The state of the playing surface – and specifically, mud – has been a concern of English football since its earliest days. Many clubs spent their formative years using makeshift pitches on public or private land, in conditions which did not encourage ‘the beautiful game’. Even by 1888 and the founding of the Football League,…
England v Argentina, 1980
England welcomed Argentina to Wembley for a prestigious friendly in May 1980. The home team were preparing for the summer’s European Championships, their first international tournament finals since the Mexico World Cup a decade earlier. The visitors were the reigning World Champions, having triumphed on home soil two years earlier. Manager César Luis Menotti had…
England v Uruguay, 1966 World Cup
After the excitement of the preparations and build-up, the 1966 World Cup Finals kicked off at 7.30 p.m. on Monday 11 July 1966 at Wembley. After the low-key opening ceremony, described as “colourful but simple”, the Finals were officially declared open by the Queen. Hosts England took on Uruguay, twice winners of the tournament, in…
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