AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Tony Attwood Royal Arsenal grew season by season, and by season four they were not only playing the 27 friendly games (similar to the number played in previous seasons) but also taking part in The London Senior Cup The FA Cup Kent Senior Cup London Charity Cup There were some monumental moments during this …
Read More “Beating Tottenham 10-1. Royal Arsenal season 4: 1889/90”
Ernest Coleman was seemingly known both as Ernie (for obvious reasons) and also Tim (for reasons I can’t fathom). The latter I mention because there was another Tim Coleman who played for Woolwich Arsenal. This article is about the the player who won a league winner’s medal in 1932/3. He was born in Blidworth Nottinghamshire …
Tommy Winship was born 14 July 1890 in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne, and was known during his footballing career as ‘Wee’ or ‘Tiny’ being only five feet four inches tall. He started out playing for Wallsend Park Villa a team that played in the Northern Football Alliance and were champions of it in 1904. In …
Read More “Tommy Winship played in the first game at Highbury”
By Tony Attwood The notion of playing football matches on Christmas Day does not go back to the very start of league football in England but rather was introduced in the second season of the football league. The first league game was on December 25th 1889 when Preston North End beat Aston Villa 3-2. That was …
By Tony Attwood If you ever want to see an amazing run up to Christmas, consider 1932. 28 August 1932: The Times confirms Charlie Jones appointed captain 3 September 1932. Arsenal start an amazing 18 match run in which they won 15, drew 2 and suffered one defeat scored 66 goals in the process (3.66 …
Read More “24 December 1932 – a staggering Arsenal Christmas present”
Season 1995/6 was the Bruce Rioch year, the season between the final outing of George Graham (replaced in February by Stewart Houston) and Arsene Wenger (preceded by Pat Rice). On the morning of 30 October the league table looked promising PD W D L F A GD Pts 1 Newcastle United 11 9 1 1 …
Read More “23 December Liverpool 3 Arsenal 1, two wins in nine – but we end up 5th”
By Tony Attwood In my previous reviews of Royal Arsenal’s seasons, I’ve listed each game played. But by the third season, of 1888/89, the number of games is getting quite large, and there is in any case a full record in the statistics section. So this time I’ll just pick out some highlights and give …
By Tony Attwood As we saw in the previous article looking at the earliest seasons of Arsenal, the club started out with a ten game campaign playing home and away against five teams between December 1886 and March 1887. There was no Football League at the time, so if the season is to be defined …
Read More “Arsenal’s second season: what really happened in 1887/8?”
by Tony Attwood Across four consecutive league matches between December 31 and January 21 1899 Adam Heywood scored six goals, yet as with so many players from our past he is now forgotten. But in his day he was quite a hero. He was born in Burton on Trent on 23 March 1875 and died …
Read More “Adam Heywood – one of Arsenal’s early stars, who left for £50”
By Tony Attwood Generally speaking books which record Arsenal’s results start with 1893, when Woolwich Arsenal entered the league. But for six seasons before that Arsenal did play a mixture of friendlies and cup games. Although the FA Cup exploits of the club have long since been recorded, the other games played – the friendlies …
Read More “Arsenal’s very first season. 1886/7 – the games, the results”
William Hall: Woolwich Arsenal director, 1910 -1915 William Hall was born in Peckham in 1858 and after years in metals became a lead manufacturer, marrying Kate in 1899. He was also involved in the Masons at a local level with Henry Norris. It appears that it was William Hall who got Norris involved in the …
Read More “William Hall: the Football League man who helped save the Arsenal.”
Jimmy Robertson (James Gillen Robertson) Jimmy Robertson was born on 17th December 1944 in the Glaswegian suburb of Cardonald and travelled to Middlesbrough to start a career in English football on the right wing. When that didn’t happen he went to Cowdenbeath and then St Mirren before being purchased by Tottenham in 1964, for £25,000. …
Read More “Jimmy Robertson, first player to score for Tottenham v Arsenal and Arsenal v Tottenham”
As you’ll know if you have read any of our commentaries on the crowds at Woolwich Arsenal, taking a punt on the outcome of football matches has been something the Arsenal crowd has done from the moment the club started playing in the league in 1893. Indeed as we’ve reported here in the past, and …
Read More “Gambling on the result of football matches – a historic perspective”
By Tony Attwood The Southern Professional Charity Cup was a competition that existed at least from 1901/2 to 1907/08 – although it may have lasted a little longer. Certainly Arsenal only competed in it during that period. Each year seven or eight teams took part. These included Portsmouth, Tottenham Hotspur, Millwall, West Ham United, Reading, …
Read More “Arsenal in the Southern Professional Charity Cup”
By Tony Attwood It was approaching a year since Chapman had died (January 6) and Arsenal as a team had marched on as if nothing had happened. With Joe Shaw having taken over as manager upon the great man’s death, Arsenal had won the league for the second time in succession. Now for 1934/5 Arsenal …
Read More “15 December 1934; 62 goals in 19 games but not top of the league!”
By Tony Attwood 14 December 1889, Two games in one day I’ve been finding it hard to get the exact low down on the The Kent Senior Cup. The Wiki page on the competition has it starting in 1889/90 but Andy Kelly’s statistical pages has Arsenal playing in it the season previously. The Kent FA …
Read More “14 December: Arsenal’s two games in one day (for the first time)”
This article updated at 11.20 on 13th December, clarifying the issue date of birth and death, after the original article showed inconsistencies in reports from other sites. The details we give below are, we firmly believe, the right ones James M Maxwell By Andrew Beattie and Tony Attwood James Morton Maxwell was born at Kilmarnock …
Read More “James M. Maxwell: the Arsenal player who “went missing” after a game in the north”
The days we played two matches at once. There are at least two days in which Arsenal were booked to play two games at once. One was 14 December 1889, but in this article I’m focussing on the second time it happened, in 1896. The event particularly involved Loughborough – the team against whom Arsenal …
Read More “12 December: One of the days when we played two matches at once.”
This article updated 14 December 2013, with the cutting confirming the date of meeting to set up the Dial Square club. The article was compiled from work by Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews. ————- 11 December 1886. Eastern Wanderers v Dial Square. The first Arsenal match We’ve speculated about this day on this site from …
Read More “11 December 1886: the definitive story of the build up to the very first Arsenal game”
By Tony Attwood On 10 December 1892 Royal Arsenal beat Clapton at home 5-0 in the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup. It was the fourth time Arsenal had been in the FA Cup and the first time Arsenal had won through the qualifying rounds to reach the first round. That is not to …
Read More “Arsenal win through the FA Cup Qualifying rounds for the first time”
James Boyle was born on 11 July 1886 in Springburn, Glasgow and started out playing for Towerhill – a team the for whom the only reference to which I can find is an entry for them playing in the 1876/7 Scottish cup. In 1890 he signed for Celtic and played his first game against Vale …
Read More “James (Jimmy) Boyle, played both centre half and in goal for Arsenal”
Arsenal 2 WBA 0; 8 December 2012 The score in relation to this match looks bland. So why bother with it? To me this game is the symbol of all the turmoil of the 2012/13 season and the start of our way out of it. On 17 November 2012 Arsenal beat Tottenham 5-2, after …
Read More “How the 2012/13 season was saved by a seemingly insignificant win”
Ian Ure was born 7 December 1939 and according to Wiki played for Ayr Albion – a club about which I can find out nothing. But after that the story is clearer, as he did indeed play for Dundee and as a member of their championship side is inducted into their hall of fame. He …
By Tony Attwood and Gerry McLeod Woolwich Arsenal’s first ground at the Manor in Plumstead could hold a maximum of around 32,000, although it was rarely full. Twice in the 1905/6 season gates of 30,000 were recorded – on April 13 1906 against Aston Villa in the league and for the 5-0 thrashing of Sunderland …
Go in the Arsenal shop and you’ll find a load of Arsenal Christmas gifts. Including the three books that the Arsenal History Society have produced. But here’s an incentive. You can get them in time for Christmas direct from the Arsenal History Society (that’s us) at a discount price. Also if buying Making the …
Read More “When you are looking for an Arsenal Christmas present, try this…”
