Woolwich Arsenal launched their first division campaign 100 years ago, on September 1, 1910, with a match against Manchester United. And the team that was put out was quite remarkable.
Here it is
E Bateup
A Ducat P R Sands R J McEachrane
D Greenaway A Common W Rippon CH Lewis F Heppinstall
Manager: G Morrell
The team formation was the classic for the period – two full back (Gray and Shaw) who stayed back, with three “half-backs”. Sands in the centre would be the defending centre half – the equivalent of the central defender today.
Although the forward line of five looks overwhelming the line actually played in a W formation like this…
A Common CH Lewis
D Greenaway W Rippon F Heppinstall
Common and Lewis were inside right and inside left, while Greenaway and Heppinstall plied the wings. Rippon was the classic Number 9.
I’ve reported before on the remarkable set of players we had – but in case you missed it, here’s the run down again with an article on each. What we had in that squad 100 years ago on 1 September was the man who took over as manager after Chapman, the man who played for England at both football and cricket, a man who played 346 games for us, the man who became the first Arsenal captain at Highbury…
Quite a selection.
There’s an article on the Arsenal History site about each one of these players. Here’s the link and a brief summary in each case, plus a link to the manager.
—————-
Goal: – E Bateup The keeper we signed and lost
2: Right Back – A Gray 200 games but now forgotten
3: Left Back – J Shaw Pat Rice in disguise he eventually took over after Chapman
4: Right half – A Ducat Played for England at football and cricket!
5: Centre half – P R Sands The first captain of The Arsenal at Highbury
6: Left half – R J McEachrane 346 games in 14 years
7: Outside Right – D Greenaway Lost in the mists
8: Inside Right- A Common Our big name signing who joined in 1910
9: Centre forward – W Rippon A brief appearance but two records
10: Inside Left – CH Lewis Not quite as versatile as reports suggest
11: Outside Left – F Heppinstall Frank Heppinstall – one of the unknown heroes of the club
Manager: G Morrell the man who had to answer to Norris
You’re blog is rubbish!!!! :/
Yo – what an extremely helpful and interesting comment.
yo – at least Tony knows the difference between ‘your’ and “you’re”
Tony, any chance you could something similar for teams from the late 80s early 90s….players like Anders Limpar etc…itd be great to see where the teams that faced Man U back then came from and what they went on to do – also the transfer fees….many thanks
Tman76 – thanks for the suggestion, and over time yes. But it is actually quite a big task, and the research for the article and the links to the 11 players took me over two weeks of an hour or two a day.
So maybe not just yet, but I must say having done the work I was rather pleased with the result – especially when it turned out that some of the guys that day had actually become very important to the club.
Yo – If you don’t like the blog, you don’t need to comment, just read elsewhere. Comments like that aren’t appreciative.
Great blog Tony, it’s nice knowing a little history about the team.
Brilliant blog man! loved reading it
Great blog, love the History side of Arsenal etc.. I agree side in 70’s 80’s 90’s would be cool too see
what was the game result tony?
and really great blog tanks
Arsenal lost to Man U 2-1 on the opening match 100 years ago. There is a report on http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/2010/09/02/the-season-starts-100-years-ago/
Hi from Italy, i sent an email to mr.Tony Attwood but received no reply, anycase just answered about some info on Percy Sands the school-teacher who became an AFC player, a good photo in action of mr.Sands let my Christmas be happier
Really sorry Bengleton – I have written back to you today; I don’t know how I missed the email, but I don’t seem to have received it. Please do write again.
Tony