AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Tony Attwood I’ve recently finished the series covering all the players who played in the first Arsenal league season of 1893/4, – the index to the whole series is on the home page. Prior to that we had the Arsenal in the 70s series, and there is a full index to that series of …
Read More “Where do we go next, and where have we come from. 9 May – a big day for Arsenal.”
Today we honour Joe Shaw who was born on this day in 1883. He became one of the most important men in the history of Arsenal spending virtually all his working life with Arsenal playing 309 times for the club, being club captain, and being reserve team manager. He is also known for being the …
Read More “Today we honour Joe Shaw, one of the greatest servants Arsenal has ever known”
By Tony Attwood The last of the 28 men who played in at least one league match for Woolwich Arsenal in the club’s first season in the football league (1893/4) is also one of the most mysterious. For while with most players we can at least trace their career a little before and after Arsenal, …
By Tony Attwood William McNab was born in Glasgow in 1870 and played first for Burnley, and then Woolwich Arsenal. There is a suggestion he next played for Leyton Orient, but this is hotly denied by sources at that club, and the alternative suggestion is put forward that he was another player who moved “over …
Read More “William McNab who played in the first league season, and a possible sighting thereafter.”
By Tony Attwood Walter Williams comes into that group of players who are almost impossible to track down. And then, just when one has got something on him, totally contradictory information appears. What I think is the case is that Walter Williams played just once in the league for Arsenal and once in a friendly, …
Read More “Walter Williams: could he really have played 58 friendlies for Arsenal?”
By Tony Attwood Another player of whom we know precious little, but nevertheless we can unravel a few of the comments made where sites to mention Thomas Bryan, simply by looking at the logic of the timescale. We are told he was born in London in 1873, and there is a suggestion that his first …
By Tony Attwood Arthur George Worrall was born on 8 Sept 1869 and played centre forward for Arsenal. It is also written that he played inside right on occasion for other teams. He started with Goldthorne Villa, and then followed spells with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Burton Swifts, and Leicester Fosse, before joining Woolwich Arsenal Worrall seems to …
Read More “Arthur George Worrall: a much travelled man who played 10 games in 32 days.”
By Tony Attwood My aim of writing something meaningful about every man who played a League game for Woolwich Arsenal in its first season in Division 2 is all very well – until it comes to people like Frank Kirk, of whom so very, very little is known. The bare bones are that he was …
Read More “Frank Kirk: a man who moved from Woolwich Arsenal to Royal Ordnance Factories”
By Tony Attwood Stanley Briggs was a centre half, born in Stamford Hill, in Hackney, north London, on 7 February 1872, and was signed by Arsenal on 23 October 1893 as an amateur from Tottenham where he had been playing since 1892. At some stage in his early years his family had moved to Kent …
Read More “Stanley Briggs; from Tottenham to Arsenal to Tottenham. But is the tale all it seems?”
By Tony Attwood The information we have on Joseph Cooper is limited in the extreme, and indeed even what we have is contradicted in some quarters. First, his name. It seems to have been Joseph Cooper, but is also noted in one source as Joe, but then seemingly noted on the Wolves heroes site …
Read More “Joseph Cooper: the most mysterious of all the mysterious Arsenal players”
By Tony Attwood Reginald William Tricker (known as Reg) was born on 5 October 1904 in Karachi (then part of Imperial India). He moved to England in 1908 with his family. He is first recorded as playing football in 1923 for Beccles Town and Alexandra Park FC before joining Luton in the 1924/5 season. Beccles …
Read More “Reg Tricker: came from India, signed by Chapman, moved on to Margate.”
by Tony Attwood Finding John Storrs, who played 12 league games and four FA Cup games for Woolwich Arsenal in the club’s inaugural league season, has turned out to be a bit of a problem. We know about his football: he came into the first team on 25 September 1893 for the fourth match of …
Read More “John Storrs who played in our first season, but then vanished.”
By Tony Attwood Joseph Frederick Heath, named in some places as “Billy” and once as “Joe” played ten league games for Arsenal and scored five goals. A remarkable achievement, and one that sent me scuttling around trying to find out more about this player. And wouldn’t you know it, there was something very special to …
Read More “Joseph Frederick (“Billy”) Heath; the man who scored the very first penalty”
By Tony Attwood Patrick (Paddy) O’Brien is one of the Arsenal players from the 19th century of whom we know only a little of his life outside football. However I think this is the most comprehensive review of his life and work yet published – but of course if you have more information, please …
John East Hawley is one of those players who when he gets mentioned in reports linking him with Arsenal is described as one of the men who never really made it in an Arsenal shirt. Such an attitude, in my opinion, is mistaken – he was brought to Arsenal by a management that was in desperation, …
Read More “John Hawley: a life saver who played for Arsenal at a most difficult time”
By Tony Attwood Bob Buchanan (full name Robert John Buchanan) was born in 1868 in Johnstone (Paisley). He started out with his local team Johnstone (not to be confused with St Johnstone who played in Perth), before moving to Abercom (a Scottish League team until 1915, local rivals to St Mirren), Sunderland Albion (a breakaway …
Read More “Robert Buchanan; an Arsenal man for two seasons who died tragically young”
By Tony Attwood The story of Arsenal during the barren years of the mid to late 1950s and on through the 1960s is told in the superb book, Arsenal the Long Sleep. There are full details of this volume, which is available worldwide as a paperback, and via Amazon on Kindle on the Arsenal …
Read More “Arsenal from 1953 to 1980, the overview of an era.”
By Tony Attwood So, the series on Arsenal in the 70s is ended. But what happened in the 70s overall? Season Posn FAC Lge C Europe Rnd Manager 1969-70 12 3 R3 Fairs Cup W Mee 1970-71 1 W R4 Fairs QF Mee 1971-72 5 RU R4 Euro QF Mee 1972-73 2 SF QF Mee …
Read More “Arsenal in the 70s the overview & what happened next”
By Tony Attwood There is an index to this series of articles at the foot of the page. Arsenal finished the 1970s in fourth, not only eight points behind the leaders, but also with a significantly lower goal scoring rate than the clubs above. P W D L F A GD Pts 1 Liverpool 22 …
Read More “Arsenal in the 70s part 25: Jan to June 1980. Farewell Liam Brady.”
By Tony Attwood Below is a list of all the managers in the history of Woolwich Arsenal, The Arsenal and Arsenal FC. The second column shows when that person (or in the case of the first time around, the committee) took up the job, and what happen in their first season. The “first season” …
Read More “How long does it take a new manager to win the league at Arsenal?”
By Tony Attwood If you have read the book, Woolwich Arsenal: the club that changed football, (and there are details at the end of this article if you haven’t) you will know that Arsenal FC began its life as a professional football club by being split in two. For between 1891 and 1893 the …
Why Mesut Ozil can inspire Arsenal to the title next season by Ray Hobbs It would be fair to say that things haven’t quite gone as planned for Arsenal this season. The Gunners are slipping out of contention for the Premier League title, have been knocked out of both the FA Cup and Capital One Cup …
Read More “Why Mesut Ozil can inspire Arsenal to the title next season”
By Tony Attwood The pre-season started off in a most curious manner with the signing on 15 July 1979 of John Hollins who joined from QPR. He played initially for Chelsea (with a spell as captain) and in 12 years knocked up 436 appearances including 167 consecutive games and then had four seasons at QPR before moving to Arsenal …
Read More “Arsenal in the 70s, part 24 July to Dec 79. One pace forwards, one pace back.”
by Tony Attwood January 1979 started in the traditional fashion with an FA Cup 3rd round tie; on this occasion it was Sheffield Wednesday away on 6 January, and the result was a 1-1 draw. 33,635 were in the crowd, and the team was Jennings, Rice, Walford, Price, O’Leary, Young, Brady, Sunderland, Stapleton, Gatting, Rix. It …
Read More “Arsenal in the 70s part 23. Jan-June 79. The trophy drought is over”
By Tony Attwood It is interesting I think to compare the 20 years of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal with the previous 20 years. Of course in any statistics a cut off point in the measurement can change the way the numbers work – for example by working on 20 years we avoid 1975/76 when Arsenal …
Read More “Just how does Mr Wenger’s 20 years compare with the 20 years before him?”
