When Arsenal fans burned down the stand and the press through it was all rather fun.

Here are the anniversaries of Arsenal for 14 March.  

The full index to what is on this site is here.

Our headline story is from 1908

 



 

Meanwhile, the latest episode in our series of articles about Henry Norris at the Arsenal is now published:

The 3rd Knighton allegation against Norris: did he sell much-needed Fred Pagnam just for profit?



Now the anniversaries

 

14 March 1892: Arsenal 0 Third Lanark Rovers 1.  Arsenal played a remarkable nine friendly games in March 1892 as behind the scenes the battle for control of the club’s committee (and thus the club’s future) between the “gentlemen” and the “workers” heated up.

14 March 1894: Henry (Harry) Woods born. After the first world war he played for South Shields before moving to Newcastle United in January 1922 for £2600  – a fee that for a few months was the world record but didn’t settle and moved to Arsenal on August 25, 1923.

14 March 1905: Chelsea FC formed.   The club had a ground, but no players.  Six months later, after their attempt to join the Southern League was blocked by Tottenham, they were playing league football.

14 March 1908: Flares carried by Woolwich Arsenal supporters got out of control and set fire to a Nottingham Forest stand.  The story took a week to make the papers and even then was reported in a light hearted way, celebrating the liveliness of the Arsenal away support.

14 March 1912  Cliff Bastin born in Heavitree, near Exeter.  He played just 17 games for Exeter before moving on to Arsenal where he played 395 games gaining the reputation of one of the club’s greatest ever players.  Exeter named a stand in their ground after him.

14 March 1914.  Arsenal 2 Fulham 0 (division 2).  Attendance 30,000.  The first ever London league derby at Highbury in the final season before league football was abandoned for the duration of hostilities.

14 March 1915: One year on from Highbury’s first league derby and a battle between German and British ships was fought at sea off the coast of Chile, while on the diplomatic front France agreed to “give” Constantinople and the Bosphorus to Russia at the end of the war (although the Russian Revolution of 1917 nullified this agreement).

14 March 1931: Aston Villa 5 Arsenal 1. Arsenal scored five or more goals nine times in the season, but also let in five – although just this once.  It was the only defeat in the last 19 games of the season as Arsenal took the title, having come 14th the previous season.

14 March 1933: Ray Bowden joined from Plymouth.  This was reported to be the final signing by Herbert Chapman before his untimely death.  Ray played as the inside forward behind Ted Drake – who signed one year later to the day.

14 March 1934: Ted Drake signed from Southampton for £6500.  In his six seasons at Arsenal although he only played 167 league games his impact was immeasurable not least because he scored an incredible 124 goals, making him the most prolific of all goal scorers.

14 March 1936: Arsenal played Preston away.  Preston were unbeaten in five and with a very strong home record, but the next game was the FA Cup semi-final so Allison dropped Male, Roberts, Milne, Davidson, Dunne, John and Rogers.  Arsenal lost 0-1, and the League were not amused.

14 March 1963: Tony Burns transferred from Tunbridge Wells.  He played 31 league games for Arsenal before moving on to Brighton in 1966.  Since retiring from playing in 1979 he has been goalkeeping coach at several clubs, most notably Millwall.

14 March 1964: Last game for Dave Bacuzzi.  He moved on to Manchester City with whom he won the second division, and then into management in Ireland, taking amateur side Home Farm to cup glory..

14 March 1964: Arsenal 2 Chelsea 4.  League debut for Peter Simpson.  He made little impact under the management of Billy Wright but flourished under Bertie Mee and made 353 appearances all told.  A one-club man. Joe Baker scored his 26th and final goal of the season in this game,

14 March 1970: Arsenal 2 Liverpool 1.  Two wins in a row after the 10 consecutive games without a win, brought some relief in the league.  Sammels and Radford got the goals.

14 March 1979: Nic Anelka born in Versailles.  He only played for Arsenal for three seasons, but brought enough profit to enable to club to build new training facilities.  He played for 12 different clubs and most recently became manager of Mumbai City FC.

14 March 1987: Arsenal 1 Watford 3.  FA Cup round 6. Allinson got the goal.  It was a disappointing result, but all was forgiven when Arsenal beat Liverpool three weeks later to win the League Cup.

14 March 1998: Man U 0 Arsenal 1 resulted in Ferguson making his “Arsenal will drop points, no doubt about that” speech as Arsenal continued with their 10 consecutive wins to take the league title.  Game 28 of the 2nd Double Season.  In a bizarre move Fred Done, a Manchester bookmaker, paid up people who had backed Man U for the league title!   The second double: part 1, part 2, part 3.

14 March 2007: The highest ever attendance for a FA Youth Cup match of 38,187, saw Arsenal 1 Man U 0 in the semi-final.  Gibbs scored for Arsenal, and Danny Welbeck played for Man U.

14 March 2007: Aston Villa 0 Arsenal 1 made it six wins and a draw in the last seven.  Diaby got the only goal on 10 minutes. Unfortunately Arsenal then went on to lose the next three league games.

14 March 2009: As four Blackburn players were yellow carded, Arshavin scored his first of 23 goals for Arsenal in a 4-0 win over Blackburn.  Eboue scored two (one a penalty) and the other was an own goal. This came in a run of 21 unbeaten matches.

14 March 2015: Arsenal 3 West Ham 0.  Arsenal closed in on Man City in second, with the completion of five consecutive wins in the league.  It was the 9th consecutive home win in the League, a record since moving to the Emirates. Giroud, Ramsey and Flamini scored.

 


Our books “Making the Arsenal” and “Woolwich Arsenal: the club that changed history” are both available on Kindle.

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