The latest post from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal
April 1920 Arsenal gain mid-table security in their first season back.
Below is our daily review of anniversaries on this day in Arsenal’s history (with the odd bit of historical context on occasion as well). The headline comes from 1999.
This daily review of Arsenal anniversaries is from the Arsenal day by day files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society. We expect to add 1000 new anniversaries to our files this year.
13 February 1892: The first ever recorded incident of a club song being sung at a football match. “Ta ra ra Boom de ay, The Arsenal’s won today.” There were 10,000 at Chatham of whom 3000 were Arsenal fans. Royal Arsenal won 2-3.
13 February 1893: Royal Arsenal beat Third Lanark as their final season moved into its last stages, prior to the creation of the limited company and the start of the club’s first Football League season the following September under its new name.
13 February 1915. Clapton Orient 1 Arsenal 0. Attendance 4,000. Arsenal’s last ever second division London derby. The low crowd was part of the decline in attendance numbers following the outbreak of war in 1914.
13 February 1926: In Chapman’s first season after one win in six, Arsenal beat Newcastle 3-0 to start run of just one defeat in nine as the club headed to its highest first division finish to date: second.
13 February 1932: Portsmouth 0 Arsenal 2 on the way to third cup final in six years after having reached not one FA Cup final between 1886 and 1927. Bastin and Hulme scored. It was Ray Parkin’s only ever FA Cup match for Arsenal.
13 February 1935: The death of Phil Kelso, the manager who took us to our first FA Cup semi-final. Having kept Arsenal in the first division, he moved to Fulham and kept them in the Second Division (avoiding the drop back into the Southern League) throughout his years in the club. The club did not acknowledge his passing.
13 February 1956: Liam Brady’s birthday. On his 17th birthday on 13 February 1973 he turned professional. His league debut was on 6 October 1973 when he came on as a substitute in a game against Birmingham.
13 February 1979: QPR 1 Arsenal 2, making it just 1 defeat in 16. It was Terry Neill’s best run during his time at the club as manager. Price and Brady got the goals.
13 February 1988: Lee Dixon’s first game. Arsenal 2 Luton 1. He played 458 league games for Arsenal between this date and 2002, scoring 24 league goals before his retirement. After eight games without a win this was the first of eight without a defeat. Arsenal came sixth in the league, and lost in the League Cup final… to Luton.
13 February 1995: John Hartson signed for Arsenal. He joined at a difficult time but still scored seven goals in his 14 league starts in the tail end of the season making him the second highest scorer (beaten only by Ian Wright).
13 February 1993: Arsenal 2 Nottingham Forest 0. FA Cup 5th round with Ian Wright scoring both, making it seven in four FA Cup games so far. It was Cup match 11 of Arsenal’s Cup Double year.
13 February 1999: Kanu’s first match v Sheffield U. The game which was replayed after a controversial goal when the ball was thrown back to Arsenal after a stoppage. Kanu played 119 league games before leaving in 2004 for WBA.
13 February 2000: Arsenal 0 Liverpool 1, following a defeat to Bradford this game left Arsène Wenger admitting that the fight for 3rd spot would be tough. Arsenal ended up second.
Yesterday’s anniversaries:
An explosion at Arsenal’s stadium wrecks the catering facilities
What’s on the Arsenal History Society site
An index to the various series that contain over 1,900 articles on this site concerning the history of Arsenal appears on our home page. Our current series is “Henry Norris at the Arsenal”
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