AISA Arsenal History Society: preserving Arsenal's heritage
By Tony Attwood No transfer window, no internationals interrupting the week by week flow of the games, no European competitions, no “25” registered players, no safety certificates for the grounds, no alcohol restrictions, no pub licensing procedures, no smoking bans…. It makes you wonder sometimes what there was 100 years ago. For Woolwich Arsenal there …
My First Arsenal match live Daniel Clark I remember my first Arsenal match- to use an old phrase- as if it were yesterday though mainly due to the build up of the actual game itself. It was 7 years ago when I was at the tender age of 9 and it was my dad and …
Read More “The train is evacuated, the taxi takes us to the wrong ground… its my first game.”
Woolwich Arsenal launched their first division campaign 100 years ago, on September 1, 1910, with a match against Manchester United. And the team that was put out was quite remarkable. Here it is E Bateup A Gray …
Read More “The team to face Man U. Where they came from, where they went”
100 years ago… Woolwich Arsenal resume league football – 1 September 1910 By Tony Attwood In the 19th century league football started on the first saturday in September. Not exactly the start of autumn but away from the “summer month” of August, which was given over to cricket. In fact cricket had the four months …
Read More “Arsenal prepare for the new season – 100 years ago!”
By Andy Barnett, Kent Both sides of the family were staunch Arsenal fans, eminating from the original Woolwich Arsenal days, so I was born a gooner. My first ever game was at Highbury on a freezing Saturday afternoon in October 1972. We played Man City, in what turned out to be a very dull 0 …
Read More “Man City; it’s freezing; 0-0; I loved every second”
MY FIRST TIME by Lucas On April 1st 1972 Arsenal were due to play Nottingham Forest at home. Forest had been a poor side for a few years, but this season they were particularly dire and bound for relegation. Now although Arsenal had been experiencing an up and down post-double season this was a real …
Read More “Arsenal v Forest 1972: my first time of seeing Arsenal live”
By Bernie Briffa, Essex It was August 23rd 1975 and an excited 10 year old hadn’t slept a wink the previous night. Why? Because this day, after many months of pleading was to be my first trip to watch my beloved Gunners live. My uncle who was visiting from Malta was to be my chaperone. …
Read More “We lose to Stoke, but we avoid relegation – my first season with Arsenal”
By Jack Staniforth I guess it must have been sometime in 1947 that I first visited Highbury although what the occasion was I can`t remember, sixty three years is a long time. My first memory however is still very vivid in my mind, April 3rd 1948 versus Sunderland (I think). The reason I remember the …
By Gfor60 At just under 5 years old, my first game came thanks to my grand-parents, family and aunts and uncles who had organized a knees up in Southend. Up to this point, my knowledge of football was confined to my gran’s “Up the Lillywhites…best football team in London.” (Interesting how Spuds don’t change?) But …
Read More ““That’s yer Christmas present, yer little Arsenal ****.””
Are you superstitious? by Frederick James McGregor I went to my first game at Highbury in 1998 vs West Ham, it was on a Boxing Day and Ian Wright had transferred to West Ham 6 months earlier. I was devastated, he was my favourite player. I was only 12 years old at that time and …
This site is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. By Walter Broeckx, Belgium. It was February 1979 when we came to London with our …
Read More “The refuse collectors were on strike, there was punk music in the air”
The Arsenal History web site (which is where you are) sponsored by AISA, is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. ———————- Aged 16, I …
The Arsenal History web site (which is where you are) sponsored by AISA, is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. ———————– The first time …
Read More “I’m cold, I’m six years old, and the warmth of a flask of stewed tea is long gone”
The Arsenal History web site (which is where you are) sponsored by AISA, is currently inviting all Arsenal supporters to write in with details of their first time of seeing the Arsenal play. If you would like to write for this series, there are details at the foot of this article. ———————– My First and …
By Tony Attwood I asked yesterday if anyone could send me some memories of their first time watching Arsenal live. Thanks to everyone who did this – I will try and publish some shortly although I am about to go on holiday, so there might be a delay. I also said I would write up …
As part of the AISA Arsenal History Project I am starting to collect reminiscences about Arsenal. There will be quite a bit to the project over time (at least I hope there will – although it depends on people’s responses) – and this is just one of the early stages. What I want to collect …
Read More “Could you write a few lines about the first time you saw Arsenal live?”
by Tony Attwood This article concludes the series of the reasons why Tottenham supporters seem so bitter about Arsenal. Links to the earlier articles are at the end. Journalists have this phrase: “bragging rights”, which seems to be a shorthand way of talking about how fans from different clubs in the same town talk to …
Read More “How Tottenham came to be so bitter. From the 80s to the present day”
By Tony Attwood In 1913 there was a bit of a rumpus. If you are a regular on this site, or indeed if you know your footballing history, you’ll know what it was: Woolwich Arsenal, after two years under the ownership of Henry Norris, decided they had had enough of Kent, and started looking for …
Read More “How Tottenham H invented the concept of football franchising”
By Tony Attwood This is the third in a series of articles comparing the history of Tottenham H and Arsenal. I’ve already noted how Tottenham tried to invent new League rules to stop Arsenal moving to north London, while they played in Middlesex, and how they have totally re-written history to suggest that in 1919 …
Tony Attwood We’ve seen in the first article how the tinies got really worked up about Arsenal moving to north London, while they were stuck over the border in Middlesex, and how they turned the events of 1919 on their head to pretend that somehow they should have stayed in the first division, while Arsenal …
Read More “How Tottenham have tried to steal Arsenal’s identity: modern times”
This article repeats a little of the article on Henry Norris and the Southern League. I have included the info about the start of the Southern League again, so you don’t have to keep zipping backwards and forwards. If you know about the Southern League bit, just skim down the page. . It all started …
Read More “How Tottenham have tried and tried again to stop The Arsenal”
Tony Attwood I raised the issue the other day that there should be a statue of Herbert Chapman somewhere at the stadium that we can all see and enjoy. As we established in the subsequent correspondence there is not just one bust of the great man, but three busts spread around, but nothing on display …
Read More “Arsenalisation: We need not just a Chapman statue but three statues”
By Tony Attwood OK, I know there is a bust, and it used to be in the marble halls at Highbury. Now it is at the Directors’ Entrance at Emirates Stadium and (according to the club) “greets the thousands of guests which visit the stadium each year.” Well, yes, up to a point. (Apart from …
Read More “Where is the statue of Herbert Chapman at the Emirates?”
This article continues from the one published yesterday – it explores the fact that by the summer of 1910 Henry Norris owned three clubs – Croydon Common in the Southern League, Fulham in Division 2 and Woolwich Arsenal in Division One. The first part of the article can be read here. ——- Today we think …
Read More “Henry Norris, Croydon, Woolwich Arsenal, the Southern League”
By the summer of 1910 Henry Norris owned three football clubs: Woolwich Arsenal (division 1), Fulham (division 2) and Croydon Common (Southern League). What was he doing? Well, it seems he thought of himself as the man who could build football in the south of England into something as powerful as the football league in …
Read More “Henry Norris owned Fulham FC, Arsenal FC and Croydon Common FC. Why? How?”
