AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
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. …
Read More “James (Jimmy) Sharp: 100+ for Arsenal, and a strange affair at Fulham.”
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) …
Read More “David Neave; played for Arsenal, went to Leyton, but saw the error of his ways”
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 …
Read More “The man who scored the first Arsenal goal in the first division”
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 …
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 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 …
Read More “Archie Cross and Bill Gooing; played over 100 games for WAFC”
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 …
Read More “James Ashcroft: our first England player and still a club record holder”
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 …
Read More “McNichol and Jackson. The original Arsenal regular back two”
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 …
Read More “John Dick, our first 250 game player who helped develop Sparta Prague”
As it it Christmas and I am away from home, being kindly entertained by others, it ill behoves me to wander off like Isaac Newton in the middle of a dinner party to work on the latest episode of this blog. (Newton was famed for doing just this – although the records don’t indicate any …
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 …
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 …
Read More “124 years on let’s celebrate Jack Humble: the founding father of Arsenal FC”
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 …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup – the final years”
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 …
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 …
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 …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup: playing at the final stadium 1908/09”
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 …
1st round. Jan 12th. Grimsby Town (away). Drew 1-1 Crowd 10,000 Grimsby Town was formed in 1878 – strange how the date of founding a club has no relevance to subsequent success. This was a typical story: members of the cricket club wanted to form a football club to occupy the empty winter. Here’s one …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the Cup 1906/7. Semis again!”
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here 1905/6 1st round. Jan 13th. West Ham United (home). Drew 1-1 Crowd 18,000 This was the first ever first team meeting with West Ham United. West Ham started as Thames Ironworks in 1895 which itself was formed out of Old Castle Swifts F.C. The Ironworks was …
Untold Arsenal on Facebook here Ticket available for Wednesday night’s Euro match – see below 1904/5 1st round. Feb 4. Bristol City (home). Drew 0-0 Crowd 25,000 Having played Bristol Rovers in the previous season, and having been now permanently excused the preliminary rounds, Woolwich Arsenal got Bristol City at home in the first round …
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here 1903/4 Final Supplementary round. Dec 12. Bristol Rovers (away). Drew 1-1 Crowd 14,000 By this season what I am calling the Final Supplementary Round was called in some quarters the sixth round. The teams entering at this stage were Manchester United, Bristol City, Preston North End, …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the cup 1903/4. Arsenal and Norris meet for the first time.”
1902/3 Final Supplementary round. Dec 13. Brentford (away). Drew 1-1 Crowd 7,000 Brentford Football Club was founded in 1889 as an offshoot of the local rowing club, although they took a while to work out if it was Association or Rugby football they were playing. They played the first association game on 23rd November 1889, …
Read More “Woolwich Arsenal in the Cup 1902/3: one of the great shocks”
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here After finally getting into the second round proper of the FA Cup in 1901 Arsenal never again had to play in a game before the Final Supplementary Round, held normally in mid-December. They made heavy weather of that round, but did manage to progress each year, …
Read More “Were Luton a pro football team before Arsenal? Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup 1901/2”
Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here 1898/9 1st round proper. Jan 28. Derby County (home). Lost 0-6 Crowd 20,000 Another attempt at breaking past the first round barrier without success. We were excused the preliminary rounds, presumably on the basis of sauntering through once again last year, but came down with a …
By Tony Attwood 1897/98 Having failed to make progress from the qualifying rounds in 1896/7 it is not surprising that Woolwich Arsenal were told to qualify again in 1897/8. This time the rounds avoided the “Final Supplementary Round” and Arsenal entered in the 3rd qualifying round, knowing that three victories would get them through. 3rd …
