Forums
Welcome to Live View – Take the tour to learn more
Start Tour
There are currently 5 people viewing this thread.
mesmerised
18 Aug 26 19:35
Joined:
Date Joined: 10 Nov 10
| Topic/replies: 41,046 | Blogger: mesmerised's blog
Arsenal played their first ever game North of the river on the Isle of Dogs (Millwall) in December 11th 1886

That's inside the big river loop bend you see on the opening credits of Eastenders.

Seemingly a response to a team called Eastern Wanderers who were advertising for teams to play against them and as they were the nearest to us, we took them up on the offer, the first 11 and goal scorers that day have never been fully established. We won 6-0.

https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/8573


Kind Regards.
Pause Switch to Standard View Post one interesting but unknown fact...
Show More
Loading...
Report SirNorbertClarke August 18, 2026 7:41 PM BST
There is some grass from United's 69/70 pitch growing in a garden of Canterbury Rd, Davyhulme.
Report Bish Bosher August 18, 2026 8:04 PM BST
Newcastle's 1st home strip in 1892 was Red top and white shorts; Black and white top didn't come until 1894
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- August 18, 2026 8:26 PM BST
Newcastle's official photographer, Gladstone Adams, invented a windscreen wiper after driving through a snowstorm on his way back from an FA Cup final.
Report Regbutler August 18, 2026 8:37 PM BST
Tied in with OP mes post
Millwall started off in the Isle of Dogs, which is, as Mes says, mostly North of the River Thames...but moved South of the river to Bermondsey, New Cross, to the Old Den
They were started by a group of Scottish dockers, hence the colour of the shirts
Report Regbutler August 18, 2026 8:50 PM BST
Sorry, that's 2 facts
Report DixieDean60 August 18, 2026 9:25 PM BST
Everton winger Sam Chedgzoy forced a change in the laws regarding corner kicks in November 1924.

Earlier that year the International Football Association Board had changed the law so that a goal could be scored direct from a corner.
Up until that point another player other than the corner taker HAD to touch the ball before a goal could be awarded.

However the new law was a tad open to interpretation and in Nov 1924 when Everton were playing Arsenal at Goodison, when taking a corner, Sam decided to dribble the ball towards the goal and then put a cross in. The ref was unimpressed and wanted to penalise Sam but the player successfully argued that the way the new rule/law was written meant he had done nothing wrong. Then later in the same game Arsenal's Rutherford did the same thing  and ended up getting a shot at goal. Apparently on the same day George Harrison (not the fab four one Grin) did something similar for Preston against Forest.

As a result of all this the FA called an emergency meeting and immediately changed the law to state a corner taker could only strike the ball once.
Report penzance August 18, 2026 10:16 PM BST
West Ham were the 1ST English club to play a European game behind
closed doors.
Report abba21 August 18, 2026 10:25 PM BST
I can play football better than some of the Liverpool players.
Report jasstardust August 18, 2026 10:32 PM BST
excellent
n very interesting facts
am a norf end(preston)
supporter n am trying to think
of something they done....!!!
Report DixieDean60 August 18, 2026 10:47 PM BST
PNE were the first team to do the double jas 1889 Cool
Report jasstardust August 18, 2026 10:52 PM BST
1889
ffs ....bit b4 my time
Report Regbutler August 18, 2026 11:07 PM BST
Yes, jass, but there are books and stuff you can read about things that happened before you were born.....just a guess, but PNE probably the only club in England ( the world ?) with the words North and End in their name?
Report DixieDean60 August 18, 2026 11:12 PM BST
Reg - In Ireland there is North End United AFC Wexford Grin
Report DixieDean60 August 18, 2026 11:14 PM BST
There's a Dundee North End FC as well Cool
Report Regbutler August 18, 2026 11:24 PM BST
Ffs, Dixie, I had a mare there
What about Wednesday, as in Sheffield?
Report Regbutler August 18, 2026 11:26 PM BST
Or Academicals, as in Hamilton?

If you come back with anything I'll give up posting
Report jasstardust August 18, 2026 11:27 PM BST
dundee, ffs
ware u get this info from
preston had a football history
museum..... and legends nightclub
next door b4 ko back in the eighties
was bouncing b4 ko
Report penzance August 18, 2026 11:29 PM BST
Original Invicibles.
Report jasstardust August 18, 2026 11:29 PM BST
invverness caladonian thistle...
anyone been to place opps maccie dees
in the town centre...av forget the name
of the place
Report jasstardust August 18, 2026 11:31 PM BST
used to open 7am
back in the day
Report Regbutler August 18, 2026 11:33 PM BST
Jass, not quite sure what you're posting, but having a nightclub "bouncing" before the game?
Anyway, not related really but, Walthamstow dogs had Charlie Chans nightclub right next door for after racing fun
Report jasstardust August 18, 2026 11:37 PM BST
it was next door to deepdale...
legends it was called a million percent
n heaving before kick off on saturdays
Report Regbutler August 18, 2026 11:42 PM BST
Jaas. Sounds like PNE was the place to be on Saturday back in the day
Report jasstardust August 18, 2026 11:45 PM BST
bo0m boomboom
were the one ND
ONLY NORF END
Report jasstardust August 18, 2026 11:56 PM BST
N BURNLEY was a cracker
when in same leagues back
then.... never sheite miself
so much going to an fa cup replay
years ago, special train from preston
to manx road next door to burnley ground
arrived to them lot throwing house bricks at
the train**** myself,,must of bin 12/13
at the time....
Report jasstardust August 19, 2026 12:03 AM BST
n anyone on here remember
the Set End in blackburn,,,,
and the revenge parties/raves
proper old skool...???
Report jasstardust August 19, 2026 12:12 AM BST
n am pretty sure
stanley mathews and
nobby stiles played
for the norf end back int
the day
Report DixieDean60 August 19, 2026 12:32 AM BST
Reg, There is an Edinburgh Academical Football Club but they actually play Rugby !

They are the oldest club in Scotland and do not use the word "rugby" in their name as they were formed before the split occurred between rugby and association football in the 1860s. Cool

No other clubs with "Wednesday" in their name as far as i know.
Report The Dragon August 19, 2026 6:52 AM BST
Liverpool were the first club to have a shirt sponsorship deal in England. it was in 1979 with Hitachi making them the first English professional club to have a commercial sponsor logo on their shirts.
Report mesmerised August 19, 2026 7:05 AM BST
Arsenal's first ever foreign player was Dutch goalkeeper Gerrit Keizer, joined in 1930 and helped us win our first league title that season.

Towards in the end of the 1940's he brought a load of Arsenal kits back to Amsterdam, Ajax then wore full Arsenal kits for 3 seasons between 46-49 due to a clothing shortage after the war, though red and white were already their colours they kept the white sleeves design.

Sparta Prague play in red because of Arsenal, their Club President saw Arsenal play in red (dark red/maroon)in 1906 and brought a set of kits back to Prague.

Braga also adopted white sleeves copying Arsenal and are known by fans til this day as Arsenalistas

And Arsenal themselves play in red after the founder was tasked with finding new kits after the name change from Dial Square to Royal Arsenal, I always thought it was because one our former players were Forest players and borrowed their kits, but apparently that is actually completely untrue.

In a Coventry Evening Telegraph interview in June 1936, Danskin said that following the name change: “It was necessary that new shirts should be bought. It was then that I was instructed to get samples and prices, and as a result we changed our colours to the now-famous red shirts which have been worn ever since.”

This original kit comprised a dark red shirt with long sleeves, a collar and three buttons down the front. Danskin also revealed that they were bought from a gentleman’s outfitters in Wellington Street in Woolwich, which should have forever dispelled the urban legend surrounding the origin of our famous red shirts. But instead, it has been incorrectly passed down from generation to generation of Arsenal fans.



Kind Regards
Report brians August 19, 2026 2:23 PM BST
Sheffield Wednesday were so called because half day closing in Sheffield was a Wednesday in the 1860's . The team was made up of several shopkeepers and associated trades and they played on a Wedneday calling themselves “ The Wednesday Club “
A further unusual fact is they played at Bramall lane as their home ground. Later on of course it became the home of Sheffield Utd who were formed later . United because they were in tandem with the cricket club who needed a winter sport to play.
The Wednesday moved to a ground in Owlerton, hence their present nickname , the Owls.
Report stewarts rise August 19, 2026 2:51 PM BST
PNE had at one time 6 players who won a European Cup winners medal playing for them, can anyone name all of them?
Report blackbarn August 19, 2026 2:53 PM BST
Re Preston North End Invincibles...   I think they were the first, and last?, team to win the league without losing a game AND win the cup without conceding a goal (in the same season).
Report DixieDean60 August 19, 2026 3:38 PM BST
True blackbarn, although it has to be pointed out that they only played a total of 27 games to do so, 22 League and 5 FA Cup.

Still a fine achievement, they only conceded 15 league goals (scored 74) and none in the cup Cool
Report mecca August 19, 2026 11:54 PM BST
Wolves were awarded and scored the first penalty kick in Football League history in 1891
Report blackbarn August 20, 2026 11:43 AM BST
Brighton and Hove Albion's only national trophy win is the 1910 Charity Shield. They did win the 1980 Jewish Chronicle Cup but don't think that counts.
Report 1st time poster August 20, 2026 11:49 AM BST
BORO had 1st £5,000 or £50,000 signing i keep forgetting , IAN GIBSON

ist £500,000 signing DAVID MILLS to WBA

and jack charlton predicted STAN CUMMINGS would be 1t MILLION £ igning but we missed out on that one
Wa it TREVOR FRANCIS ?
Report mesmerised August 20, 2026 11:58 AM BST
Had to look up who scored the first ever penalty in football after reading about the Wolves one, looks like penalties was invented by an Irishman and scored by one in Airdrie in 1891.
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- August 20, 2026 12:37 PM BST
Might need to look again!!!


Another quick look at the newspapers at the start of the 1890/91 season shows that the penalty kick was introduced in friendly and Midland League games.  The first penalty kick took place at Turf Moor on the evening of the 1st September 1890.  Darwen’s penalty was saved by the Burnley goalkeeper Kaye.  According to the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of Monday 8th September 1890, the first penalty kick in the world was scored by McGinnes of Burslem Port Vale.  It proved the winner in a 2 1 victory over Staveley in a Midland League match.

..

https://thestrawplaiters.com/library/penalty-kick/

..
Report mesmerised August 20, 2026 1:01 PM BST
Yeah I did see that, but can we count regional leagues and friendly matches, if so then that would be the first ever recorded penalty, then someone would have to tell the local council in Airdie who have a blue plaque at the park where it was scored noting the historic moment.
Report penzance August 20, 2026 1:02 PM BST
When we signed Phil Parkes from QPR it was a world record fee for a keeper at the time
£565,000.
Report DixieDean60 August 20, 2026 1:03 PM BST
The gloriously named James McLuggage scored that first penalty for Royal Albert FC against Airdrie mes.

Liverpool and Man Utd title winning sides have been for ever grateful for that decision by the  IFAB in 1891 to allow penalties to be awarded in games Grin

donny - those penalties in that report from 1890 could not have been "official" as penalty kicks only got incorporated in to the laws of the game in June 1891.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zc2gfdm
Report mesmerised August 20, 2026 1:04 PM BST
I know but it was in Airdrie
Report mesmerised August 20, 2026 1:13 PM BST
Someone might also want to tell this guy who posted a 20 minute video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU71dgRjgMw
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- August 20, 2026 1:39 PM BST
Official or not, they were recorded in press, and followed the same procedure that was incorporated into the laws.

Article also shows pitch markings of the era, and history of 18 yard box and 6 yard box.... It's good to know where these things
originate, and see their development.

Lots of stuff going on back then, and if these were not researched and recorded then
you get to a point where football begins with formation of premier league.
Report penzance August 20, 2026 1:42 PM BST
Juventus play in their colours because of Notts County.
Report mesmerised August 20, 2026 1:46 PM BST
I'd probably say yes as well as it is on reflection, as you couldn't actually say you scored the first ever penalty when someone else actually scored it, it's like Arsenal's red kits, google where we got those and it pings back umpteen stories about an Arsenal player who was ex-Forest and had some sent down, but it's not true, even Brian Clough said “That lot play in red because of us", yet they were bought from a Tailors in Woolwich by the club owner.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/w4FtDedF-bQ
Report DixieDean60 August 20, 2026 1:59 PM BST
It doesn't matter how much research and recording by local papers back then there is, the penalty kick was not incorporated in to the laws of the game until June 1891.

It is likely that when McCrum's original proposal was being laughed at in 1890 that a local league may well have thought it worth trying, but it could not have been official as it was not within the laws. Who knows, maybe others had actually tried something similar before in their local matches ? Plenty of innovations in the game (and sport in general in fact) are trialled before actually becoming official.
Post Your Reply
<CTRL+Enter> to submit
Please login to post a reply.

Wonder

Instance ID: 13539
www.betfair.com