The Arsenal “penalty king” who only ever took two penalties

The latest post from our series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal

Exposing the second libel against Henry Norris: the summer of 1920.

Today’s headline is taken from this day in 1901.


18 February 1888: Arsenal v Erith – continuing the development of Royal Arsenal through the club’s first full season.  This is the first recorded appearance of Jack Humble in the team, although for a number of games in this era there are incomplete details.

18 February 1893: Arsenal 5 Millwall Athletic 0.  This friendly continued the local rivalry as Arsenal prepared to enter the League.  6000 turned up.  See also here

18 February 1901: Leonard Thompson was born in Sheffield.  He played 26 games for Arsenal and provides one of many examples of how utterly unreliable Bernard Joy’s book “Forward, Arsenal!” is as a source. Joy called him the “penalty king” but in fact he only ever took two penalties!

18 February 1911: Blackburn 1 Arsenal 0.  The result meant that Harry Logan had played seven games for Arsenal in the league, and the club had not won any of them.

18 February 1939: Gordon Bremner was one of the many extraordinary footballers who could never develop his talent because of the war.  Arsenal 1 Chelsea 0 was his 7th league game in succession in which Arsenal won six drew 1 and did not concede a single goal.  

18 February 1953: Arsenal 6 Derby 2, giving 24 Arsenal goals in six games.  Despite losing two of the next three, Arsenal continued to progress to the title.  Daniel (2), Holton (2), Lishman (2).

18 February 1956:  Dennis Evans went in goal when Jack Kelsey was injured in a 5th round FA Cup replay against Sheffield United.  Arsenal lost 0-3.

18 February 1958: Last game for Derek Tapscott.  He played 132 league games for Arsenal, before moving on to his home club Cardiff City.  After retirement from football he worked in the sporting goods trade for Gola and wrote his autobiography, Tappy.

18 February 1958: Johnny Petts first game, a 2-1 home defeat to Bolton aged 19. It was a time when Arsenal had lost five games in six – but this was the end of the sequence, and Johnny kept his place for five games,

18 February 1961: League debut for David Bacuzzi, taking over at full back from Len Wills who was injured.  He ultimately played 46 league games for Arsenal.  Arsenal beat WBA away 3-2, the first win in four, Haverty (2) and Skirton getting the goals.

18 February 1965: Terry Anderson transferred to Norwich after just 25 games.  He went on to play 236 games for Norwich where he stayed until 1974.   In 1980 Terry was seemingly on a training run in Great Yarmouth, and never returned.  His body was found a week later – tragically he had drowned.

18 February 1969: Arsenal 0 Ipswich 2 made it two defeats, one draw, one win in the last four games, as Arsenal slipped to fourth in the league after the long winning run earlier in the year.

18 February 1976: Derby County 2 Arsenal 0, with 24,875 in attendance.  The result meant that Arsenal were now 18th and looking increasingly like relegation contenders.

18 February 1978: Arsenal 4 Walsall 1 en route to Neill’s first cup final.  Stapleton. Macdonald and Sunderland scored.  43,789 turned up for the first the first meeting of the two clubs since Walsall beat Arsenal in 1933, and the result meant Walsall had won seven games against Arsenal, while Arsenal had only beaten Walsall five times.  See also here

18 February 1984: Debut for Paul Mariner.  He played 60 times for Arsenal and 35 times for England.  It ended Arsenal 1 Aston Villa 1 (Rix scoring).  It was Arsenal’s sixth consecutive game without a win.

18 February 1986: John Devine broke his leg – an incident that ended his top flight career.   He later moved to Norway as a player before returning to England and moving into coaching.

18 February 1987: Tony Adams’ international debut.  He played 66 times for England, as well as 15 England “B” games, and five games for England under 21s.

18 February 1989: Millwall 1 Arsenal 2 concluded a 10 match unbeaten run including eight victories.  Since their early rivalries both clubs had moved across the river – Millwall south to the Den, Arsenal north to Highbury.

18 February 1998: Chelsea 3 Arsenal 1 (League cup semi final 2nd leg).  Chelsea went through to the final, but Arsenal went on to their second League and Cup double. (For a short guide to season see here)

18 February 2001: Arsenal 3 Chelsea 1.  FA Cup 5th round, on the way to the final. Henry and Wiltord scored to take Arsenal on to a game against Blackburn.



 

This daily review of Arsenal anniversaries is from the Arsenal day by day  files prepared by the AISA Arsenal History Society.   We expect by the end of this year to have approaching 6000 entries in our anniversaries list.

 



Yesterday’s anniversaries:

Arsenal concede their first goal in two months



 

What’s on the Arsenal History Society site

Our current series is “Henry Norris at the Arsenal”  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.

“Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football” and “Making the Arsenal” are both available on Kindle, and we have a small number of copies of the printed edition available at £10 each + £2.00 postage and packing for delivery in UK.   Please  see here for more details

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