Eddie Hapgood, captain of Arsenal and England

Continuing the series about players who played under George Allison, we come to Eddy Hapgood, who was signed by Herbert Chapman from Kettering Town, and played under both Chapman and Allison. Eddie has been the subject of a piece here before, when I wrote a piece about his autobiography The idea here is to complete …

Herbert Chapman at Huddersfield Town

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here Victory Through Harmony By Tony Attwood We play Huddersfield Town rarely, so now that we have one of those  moments it is worth, I think, having a look at the eternal link that binds the two clubs together: Herbert Chapman.   In this article I focus on …

Bob John; our top performer before World War II

This article was updated 26 January 2017 with details of Bob John’s year by year statistics. By Tony Attwood If you want a simple fact about Bob John it is that he played for Arsenal 470 times – more than any other player up to the cessation of football in 1939. Robert Frederick  John was born …

Herbie Roberts: how can Arsenal forget this wonderful player?

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here Victory Through Harmony There are so many famous names from the Chapman / Allison era that is not surprising that one or two slip from the public mind despite their being players of enormous importance and stature in the history of the club. Herbie Roberts is …

The Allison Years: Frank Moss in goal

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal   There’s no article about George Allison on the Arsenal official web site, other than a 70 word summary in the “Managers” section and yet even if he is judged simply by his record as a manager he is surely worth of more. He game us two league trophies and the …

Why do a series on George Allison?

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood I should start by making a confession (well not much of a confession because what I am going to confess is undoubtedly patently obvious if you have been reading through my jottings over the past couple of years. It is this: when I …

Billy Blyth: Arsenal’s first film star

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood This is the final entry in our series of articles about players who played 100 or more games for Woolwich Arsenal. This final article takes us to a group of players in the 100+ club who we have covered before.  I’m listing them …

James (Jimmy) Sharp: 100+ for Arsenal, and a strange affair at Fulham.

This article is one of a series on the players who played 100 or more times for Woolwich Arsenal FC.   There’s now an index of all the articles in this continuing series here. Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here James “Jimmy” Sharp played for Arsenal at left back between 1905 and 1908.  …

David Neave; played for Arsenal, went to Leyton, but saw the error of his ways

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here In our series of articles about the players who made over 100 appearances for Woolwich Arsenal we come to David Neave. David Neave was born in 1883 and played for Arsenal in two separate spells between 1904 and 1912, making 168 appearances (154 in the league) …

The man who scored the first Arsenal goal in the first division

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here by Tony Attwood Charles Oliver Satterthwaite (known as Charlie) was born in 1877 and played for Arsenal from 1904/5 until the 1909/10 season.  He made 141 appearances for the club of which 129 were in the league, and scored 48 goals (45 in the league). His …

The families of the heroes of Woolwich Arsenal

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader of this site, you’ll know that I have got very excited from time to time when we have been contacted by members of the family of those who played for the club, or held important positions. In …

Tim Coleman at Woolwich Arsenal

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood Next up in our list of Woolwich Arsenal players who played over 100 games for the club we have Roderick John McEachrane (Roddy) who played 313 league games – and played 346 games in all – for Woolwich Arsenal.   There are full details …

Archie Cross and Bill Gooing; played over 100 games for WAFC

Archie George Cross was born in Dartford, in 1880, and played 149 times for the club (132 in the league).   He joined Dartford, before transferring to New Brompton and then Woolwich Arsenal in April 1900, playing throughout as a right back. The chances are that once again we have here a case of a footballer …

James Ashcroft: our first England player and still a club record holder

By Tony Attwood James (Jimmy) Ashcroft is a player of enormous importance in the history of Arsenal as a club – a player who would adorn the outside of the Emirates Stadium if they took into account players from the Woolwich era. He played for Woolwich Arsenal for eight seasons fro 1900 – 1908 in …

McNichol and Jackson. The original Arsenal regular back two

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here Duncan McNichol Moving on to the third part of the survey of players who played over 100 times for Woolwich Arsenal we have Duncan McNichol, a right back who played for the club between 1899 and 1903 making 112 appearances (101 in the league) scoring one …

John Dick, our first 250 game player who helped develop Sparta Prague

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here The story of John Dick, by Tony Attwood John Dick, born in Eaglesham in Renfewshire in 1876 played 284 games for Woolwich Arsenal, and scored 13 goals (262 in league with 12 goals).   He joined in 1898 and left in 1912.  In every possible way he …

They played 100+ games for Woolwich Arsenal

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here One of the factors that I have reported on many times while looking into the history of the Woolwich Arsenal players is how quickly many of the players moved on.  As far as I can see only one of the players who started the very first …

124 years on let’s celebrate Jack Humble: the founding father of Arsenal FC

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here By Tony Attwood, with enormous support and additional research from Andy Kelly There’s general agreement that the club that became Arsenal was formed in December 1886, 124 years ago. Most histories of the club give details of several men who played a leading role in the …

Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup – the final years

1911/12 1st round.  Jan 13th.  Bolton Wanderers  Away.   Lost 0-1  Crowd 24615 A disappointing result, having drawn with Bolton in the league earlier in the season, and beating them at home in the return match later.  But Bolton had cup history, getting to the final in 1894 and in 1904. They also held the record …

Woolwich Arsenal in the Cup 1910-1911

1910-11 1st round.  Jan 14th.  Clapton Orient.  Away.   Abandoned at 1-0 Why was the game abandoned on 45 minutes?  The most likely cause in London 1911 was fog.  I await confirmation from the usual sources!   The crowd was not recorded in my normal source. It should be made clear from the start that this was …

Woolwich in the Cup: 1909-10: decline and fall.

1909/10 If you know your Arsenal history you’ll know this is the season when Arsenal went bust, and were ultimately rescued in the summer of 1910 by Henry Norris – the man instrumental in building the modern club. What I am trying to do here is show the context of the club-defining events from 1909/10 …

Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup: playing at the final stadium 1908/09

1908/09 1st round.  Jan 16th.  Croydon Common (away).  Drew 1-1  Crowd 20,000 The Arsenal handbook that I am using as a guide to these matches has this game played at “Crystal Palace by arrangement,” which is a rather interesting comment. Where there is now the National Sports Centre there once was the home of the …

The Decline and Fall of Woolwich Arsenal FC

Until the point we have covered so far in this FA Cup review, Woolwich Arsenal had been in a period of modest but steady growth.  From a seemingly endless period of hardly being able to crawl out of the preliminary rounds through a period of messing around in the first round or two of the …